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of  tfje 

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Collection  of  J^ortfi  Caroliniana 
tJTfjisf  book  bjasf  preisenteb 

otWcL 


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Form  No.  A-369 


^ngrayea.  Jay  J.  C  SiiHre 


TIKIE  [KDGiKnr  OBEVc  JdSffiJfy    STAK&S    [KAVEWS(D[FS(IDFT,  IDoIIDo 


:bi3bvp  or  the  mocESii  ofnortw  caiwuha- 


THE    LIFE 


OF 


BISHOP  RAYENSCROFT. 


BY 

JOHN  N.  NOKTOX,  M.A., 

BBCTOE  OF  ASCENSION   CHTTKCU,   FRANKFORT,  KY.  ;   AUTHOR  OF  "  FULL 

„   ""TISTEY;"   "ROCKFOKD   pAwTew''   "ttpw  nv 

BISHOP  "WHITE,"   ETC. 


«'  Preach  the  word  ;  be  Inetant  In  eeason,  out  of  season  ;  reprove,  rebuke,  exhort 
with  all  long-suffering  and  doctrine."— «.  Paul's  Charge  to  Timothy,  the  Bishop  0/ 
Ei>heeiit. 


NEW    YOPwK: 

CScneral  i3rotcstnnt  HjJiscopal  SunTJaj}  School  SHlnfon, 
anU  ((tjurc!)  aSook  Societw, 

T62    BROADWAY. 

1858. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  tlie  year  1S53, 

By  the  Geseeal  Protestant  Episcopal  Suxday  School  Union, 
AND  Chukch  Book  Society, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the 
Southern  District  of  New  York. 


William  Denyse,  Pudnky  <Sc  Russkli,, 

8tkbe0ttfeh  and  electrotyper,  pbintkr8, 

183  Waiam  &i-eet,  N.  Y.  79  John  Street,  N.  r. 


PUBLISHED 


BY 


THE      DIOCESE 


MatW)  «i;ar0,lina 


TO 

JOSIAII   COLLIXS,   ESQ., 

OF 

SOMERSET  PLACE,  SCUPPERXOXG,  NORTH  CAROLINA, 

AS  A 

tribute  cf  |Us}JCCt 

FOR 

HIS    DISTINGUISHED    ABILITIES, 

AND 

FOR   ni3   DEYOTIOX  TO   THE   CAUSE 
OF 

Kf^t  (2rf)urc8. 


"  EvEEY  Christian  may,  and  should  be,  ready,  in  matters  of  indif- 
ference, to  sacrifice  mere  opinions  on  the  altar  of  peace  and  good 
order,  and  to  yield  a  prompt  obedience  to  lawful  ecclesiastical 
authority.  Such  principles  lead  to  the  maintenance  of  the  Church 
in  her  integrity.  They  forbid  us  to  attempt  amalgamation  with  sur- 
rounding brethren,  separate,  alike,  in  doctrine,  polity,  and  institu- 
tions. Such  views  and  conduct  are  often  stigmatized  with  oppro- 
brious epithets.  It  is  under  such  circumstances  that  a  determined 
spirit  of  obedience  to  God,  in  all  things,  is  required  of  us."— Bishop 
De  Lancet's  Sermon,  published  by  request  of  the  Wardens  and 
Vestry  of  St.  Luke^s  Church,  Rochester,  N.  F.,  1844. 


P  R  E  F  A  C  E 


The  materials  out  of  which  the  biographer  must  con- 
struct his  work,  are  oftentimes  much  more  scanty  than 
would  be  generally  supposed. 

It  is  but  seven-and-twenty  years  since  Bishop  Eavens- 
croft's  decease,  and  yet,  when  the  attempt  is  made  (and 
that,  too,  with  no  little  diligence  and  zeal)  to  discover 
his  surviving  friends,  and  to  note  down  their  remem- 
brances of  him,  the  task  is  found  to  be  almost  as  difficult 
as  in  the  case  of  Bishop  Seabury,  who  has  been  dead  for 
more  than  sixty  years. 

The  truth  is  that  we  are  living  in  a  busy,  bustling  age, 
and  one  generation  treads  so  closely  upon  the  heels  of  the 
next,  that  the  departed  are  too  soon  forgotten,  and  the 
benefit  of  their  example,  in  many  cases,  is  lost  to  the 
Church. 

This  consideration,  among  others,  has  prompted  the 
writer  to  prosecute  his  task  of  preparing  this  series  of 
biographies,  with  all  the  expedition  which  so  serious  au 
undertaking  will  permit  him  to  use. 


"  Stand  as  an  anvil,  when  it  is  bbaten  upon." — 

St.  Ignaiitis  to  St.  Pdlyearp :  both  Marlyn. 


*'  Stand,  like  an  anvil,"  when  the  stroke 
Of  stalwart  men  falls  tierce  and  fast  ; 

Storms  but  more  deeply  root  the  oak, 
"Whose  brawny  arms  embrace  the  blast. 

"  Stand,  like  an  anvil,"  when  the  bar 

Lies,  red  and  glowing,  on  its  breast ; 
Duty  shall  be  life's  leading  star, 

And  conscious  innocence,  its  rest. 

*'  Stand,  like  an  anvil,"  when  the  sound 
Of  ponderous  hammers  pains  the  ear ; 

Thine,  but  the  still  and  stern  rebound 
Of  the  great  heart  that  cannot  fear. 

Bishop  Doane. 


CONTENTS. 


C 1)  n p  t c V  ffivst, 

PAGB 

An  exception  to  a  general  rule,  and  yet  a  case  which  ends  like  all 
the  rest — IJirth — Parentage — Kemoval  to  Europe — The  Ameri- 
can boy  at  school  in  Scotland— Ilis  father's  death— The  widowed 
mother  and  lu-r  only  son— Good  seed  not  lost— The  Bible  in 
eehools— A  higher  school  in  England— What  Mrs.  Kavenscroft 
never  dreamed  of 18 

€t)apter  Scconlr. 

Unsettled  estates— Young  Eavenscroft  returns  to  Virginia- 17S9 
—State  of  the  e<iuntry  at  that  time— The  Church  awaking  after 
long  slumber — Success  in  recovering  property — Plans  fur  study- 
ing law— William  and  Mary  College— Dr.  Madison,  President 
and  Bishop — Unrestrained  license  of  youth — Worse  and  worse 
—Fulfilling  the  desires  of  the  flesh  and  of  the  mind 21 

€:f)aj)ter  S:!)irlT. 

Little  progress  made  at  college— Turning  over  a  new  leaf— Mr. 
Burwells  daughter — The  influence  which  she  was  one  day  to 
possess- Visit  to  Scotland— Farewell  to  mother  and  friends- 
Settlement  for  life— A  good  wife— Eighteen  years  without  God 
in  the  world — Kind  and  amiable  traits — Morality  not  religion 
— One  thing  lacking— The  fire  going  out  on  the  altar— The 
blind  leading  the  blind — God's  long-sufiTering  mercy 29 

Ciinptcv  ffouxtli. 

Foolish  and  false — True  statement  of  the  case — Turning  from 
darkness  to  light— ISIO,  a  memorable  year— Solemn  reflections 
—The  resolutions  of  the  self-righteous— Mortifying  failures — 
The  Bible  read  once  more — Kenewed  struggles  to  do  right — 
Human  strength  again  gives  way— Convinced  of  sin -Prayers 
and  tears— Dawnings  of  hope — What  children  may  learn  I'rom 
the  narrative 36 


COXTEXTS. 


Cljaptct'  JFiftl). 

PACK 

Open  confession  of  Christ— Sad  condition  of  the  Church— Re- 
joicings of  the  enemy — Republican  Methodists — The  husband 
and  wife  received  into  communion — The  events  of  throe  years 
— "What  conscience  suggested — Obstacles — The  decision' of  a 
brave  mind — Another  difficult  question — The  origin  of  minis- 
terial authority— The  study  of  God's  oracles  making  him  wiser 
than  his  teachers — Candidate  for  holy  orders — Lay  reading — 
Harsh  judgment — Death  of  his  wife — "  Such  a  Saviour  I" 44 


Ordination — Call  to  Mecklenburg — A  vigorous  laborer  of  forty- 
five — No  sham  commission — Allowance  which  should  be  made 
— Small  beginnings — The  offence  of  a  faithful  Gospel — Peculiar 
manner — "  Am  I  the  only  person  present  who  believes  in  God  ?" 
— Mark  his  track  in  the  "snow-  Success— New  church— Bishop 
Moore's  report — Well-deserved  honor— Dr.  Wilmer's  kind  con- 
gratulations       52 

Second  marriage— Losses  and  crosses— Diligence  quickened— 
Influence  among  his  brethren— Invitations  to  diflferent  parishes 
— A  call  to  a  still  wider  field  of  usefulness — History  of  the 
Church  in  North  Carolina— First  settlement  by  the  English- 
Trials  of  the  early  settlers— The  Rev.  John  Blair,  Missionary 
and  Commissary  —  His  first  report  —  Fellow-laborers  —  Rev. 
John  Urmston— Hardships— Results  of  labor 60 


The  Rev.  Mr.  Rainsford— Service  under  the  mulberry-tree— 
Baptism  of  negroes — Lodging  in  the  old  tobacco  barn— Indian 
wars— Wearied  and  worn  out — Fresh  laborers  in  the  field — 
Rev.  Thomas  Newnan— A  large  parish— How  the  Sundays 
were  divided — Over-exertion  and  exposure  do  their  work- 
Still  another  missionary — Laboring  yet  more  abundantlj- — De- 
voted laymen— Desire  "for  Bishops fi9 


A  well-tried  layman  turning  missionary — A  hundred  baptisms  a 
daj-- Mr.  Garzia— The  fifty  pounds  per  annum— Scanty  living 
— Clement  Ilall— Wide  field  of  labor,  and  much  accomplished 
in  it— Hard  toil — Resting  from  his  labors — Six  clergymen  in 
the  Province— American  Revolution— Dark  aud  dismal  daya 


CONTENTS. 


Ibr  the  Church— The  rally  of  1T9  I— Another  relapse— The  day-  "^ 
star  arises  at  last 77 

Cljaptfv  STcntt). 

A  few  more  intermediate  stops— Convention  at  Newborn  in  1S17 
—The  session  in  the  year  tollowinsj— An  old  i)amphlet— Con- 
vention at  Fayeltoville- Important  proeeedlnsrs— Kej)nrt  on 
the  state  of  the  Church  in  North  Carolina— liishop  >[<)ore'a 
first  visitation  to  the  diocese — The  labors  of  a  year— Good 
hopes  for  the  future 85 

Cijnptcv  Hlcbentf). 

Bishop  Moore  visits  North  Carolina  affain— Roport  of  his  labors 
there- Important  step  in  lv2:]— Mr.  Eavonsoroft  chosen  Bishop 
of  North  Carolina— Qualifications  for  this  position -Consecra- 
tion—Enters  into  the  harvest— Settlement  of  first  princii>les— 
Sermon  at  the  primary  Convention— Eneriry  in  preachinfj — 
Anecdote— Knowledge  of  human  nature— The  stajtce-coach  dis- 
cussion about  race-horses,  and  what  grew  out  of  it 93  ' 


Cfiaptci:  ClDclftf). 

Severe  labors— The  penalty  of  over-exertion— Occupation  of  a 
sick  chamber— Controversy— Divisions  among  Christians  de* 
plored— Two  modes  of  doing  Church  work— Both  good  in 
their  way— The  course  which  necessity  urged  upon  Bishop 
Kavenscroft- Letter  to  Bishop  Ilobart— Faint,  yet  pursuing — 
Humbleness  of  a  great  mind 101 

Ctaptcr  Zi)ivtccnt\}. 

Brethren  dwelling  together  in  unity— Bishop  Moore's  letter— A 
Virginia  Convention— Love  for  the  Church— Men  of  praver — 
"Wrestlings  of  a  devout  spirit- Entering  into  the  closet— De- 
light in  the  study  of  God's  Word—"  What  commentator  shall 
I  consult  V"— Teachings  of  the  Spirit Ill 

€t)nptct  jFourtccnti). 

A  Sunday  among  the  Moravian  Brethren— Early  service  at  the 
school— Worship  in  the  church— Introduction  to  Bishop  Be- 
nade— Love-feast— Friendly  interview— Longings  after  unity 
—The  Lord's  Supper-Mode  of  its  administration— Night  serv- 
ice—Parting with  mutual  expressions  of  regard— A  petition  in 
which  all  true  Christians  must  heartily  unite 119 


201  COIfTEI^TS. 


©ija^ter  JFiftecntij. 

eAQB 

The  Bishop  leaves  the  parish  at  Ealeigh — Eemoval  to  "Williams- 
borough— Last  earthly  tie  broken— The  Convention  of  1S29  re- 
leases him  from  parochial  charge — Visit  to  Tennessee  and 
Kentucky— Labors  of  Dr.  Chapman— Kentucky  organized  as 
a  diocese— Bishop  Kavenscroft  at  Lexington — ^Ninety-one  con- 
firmed—Interesting particulars 12T 

d)apter  ,Si):teent|). 

A  long  journey— State  of  health— General  Convention— Medical 
advice— Prospect  of  recovery— Eeturn  home— Eelapse — Last 
service— No  more  hope  of  life— Death-bed  conversations— Dr. 
Freeman's  narrative —Folly  of  repentance  delayed  until  the 
close  of  life— Communiou  of  the  sick— The  sleep  "of  death 136 

€!)<t|)ter  Sebentcentfj. 

Burial— Minute  directions  in  his  will — Library  for  the  diocese — 
Works  for  the  press— Personal  appearance— Manners — Solem- 
nity in  church— Eeports  of  eye-witnesses— Ordinary  courtesies 
of  life — An  oft-told  story  spoiled — ^Love  towards  God — Success 
In  the  ministry— The  best  knowledge— Affection  for  his  clergy 
—The  wise  old  man  at  rest 146 


LIFE 

OP 

BISHOP    RAYENSCROFT. 


Chapter  lirst. 


AN  EXCEPTION   TO   A    GENERAL    RULE,    AND   YET    A   CASE 

WniCn  ENDS  LIKE  ALL  THE  BEST BIRTH — PARENTAGE 

REMOVAL    TO     EUROPE THE    AMERICAN     BOY    AT 

SCHOOL  IN  SCOTLAND — HIS  FATHER'S  DEATH — THE 
"V7ID0WED  MOTHER  AND  HER  ONLY  SON — GOOD  SEED 
NOT  LOST — THE  BIBLE   IN  SCHOOLS — A  HIGHER  SCHOOL 

IN     ENGLAND WHAT      MRS.      EAVENSCROFT     NEVER 

DREAMED  OF. 

^N"  most  of  tlie  biographies  of  the  Bish- 

^1}  ops   of  the   Church  which  we  have 

vP.  hitherto  had  the  privilege   to  write, 

we   have   had  occasion  to  notice  the 

happy  effects  which  have  uniformly 

followed   the  faithful  instruction    of 

2 


14  LITE   OF   BISHOP   EAVENSCEOFT. 


parents.  The  life  of  Bishop  Kavenscroft, 
while  it  is  no  exception  to  this  rule,  will  yet 
be  found  quite  different  from  the  rest.  It 
will  serve  to  illustrate  the  fact,  that  although 
the  good  seed  sown  in  childhood  may  lie  for 
a  long  time  dormant,  and  aj^parently  dead, 
sooner  or  later,  by  God's  grace,  it  will 
again  appear,  and  bring  forth  fruit  unto 
holiness. 

John  Stark  Rayenscroft  was  born  in  the 
year  1772,  at  an  estate  near  Blandford, 
Prince  George's  County,  Yirginia,  which  had 
long  been  in  the  possession  of  his  family. 
He  was  the  only  child  of  Dr.  John  Eavens- 
croft,  a  gentleman  of  fortune,  who  had  been 
educated  for  a  physician.  The  Bishop's 
mother  was  the  daughter  of  Mr.  Hugh 
Miller,  a  native  of  Scotland,  who  resided  in 
the  same  county. 

Dr.  Ravenscroft's  ample  fortune  and  small 
family  soon  induced  him  to  abandon  his 
laborious  profession,  and  within  two  months 


REMOVAL   TO    EUROPE.  15 


after  the  birth  of  his  son  he  crossed  the 
ocean,  and  spent  a  couple  of  years  in  the 
north  of  England.  He  finally  settled,  how- 
ever, in  the  south  of  Scotland. 

It  is  not  known,  certainly,  why  Dr.  Eav- 
enscroft  removed  to  Europe.    Although  many 
persons  fled  thither,  as  the  stormy  days  of 
the  American  Revolution   approached,  it  is 
unlikely    that    the     troubles    between    the 
colonies   and  the   mother  country  had   any 
influence  in  this  particular  case.     Great  ex- 
citement had  prevailed  before,  but  the  year 
1772,   and   the   early  part  of  the  following 
one,  was  a  season  of  remarkable  tranquillity 
— so  much  so,  indeed,  that  the  opinion  was 
generally    entertained    that    the   wiser   and 
more  righteous  policy  which  the  British  gov- 
ernment had  begun  to  pursue,  would  be  the 
means  of  preventing  all  further  difticulties 
with  the  colonies. 

Whatever  Dr.  Ravenscroft's  motives  may 
have    been    for    leaving    America,   it    was 


16  LIFE   OF   BISHOP    EAYENSOEOFT. 


plainly  his  intention  to  return  no  more,  as 
arrangements  were  made  for  the  sale  of 
his  landed  estates  and  other  valuable  prop- 
erty. 

This  business  was  all  arranged  to  his  satis- 
faction, but  in  consequence  of  the  unsettled 
state  of  the  countiy  during  the  war,  the  pay- 
ments were  not  promptly  met,  and  he  was 
in  consequence  somewhat  embarrassed  dur- 
ing the  rest  of  his  life,  although  he  left  his 
widow  in  easy  circumstances.  He  died  to- 
wards the  close  of  1780. 

And  now  only  two  actors  are  left  upon 
the  stage,  the  widowed  mother  and  her  son, 
a  promising  boy,  eight  years  of  age. 

The  earliest  recollections  of  Bishop  Rav- 
enscroft  were  associated  with  Scotland — its 
clouds  and  mists,  and  its  rugged  and  pictur- 
esque scenery.  His  mother  was  a  strong- 
minded,  intelligent  woman,  and  she  felt  that 
the  best  part  which  she  could  do  for  her 
son  was  to  give  him  the  advantages  of  a 


GOOD    SEED   NOT   LOST.  17 


thorough  education.  The  schools  of  Scot- 
hiiid  were  celebrated  for  aflbrding  peculiar 
lacilitics  to  the  student,  and  the  little 
American  boy,  thus  early  transplanted  from 
his  native  soil,  made  good  use  of  his  oppor- 
tunities. 

Speaking  of  these  early  days,  in  a  fragment 
of  an  autobiography,  which,  it  is  much  to  be 
regretted,  was  not  made  more  complete,  the 
Bishop  remarks  :  "  Here  I  received  the  rudi- 
ments of  my  education,  and  I  feel  bound  to 
record  that  I  owe  much  to  the  custom  there 
established  of  making  the  Scriptures  a  school- 
book — a  custom,  I  am  grieved  to  say  it,  not 
only  abandoned  in  the  scliools  and  academies 
among  us,  but  denounced  as  improper,  if  not 
injurious.  Although  I  was  unconscious,  at 
^the  time,  of  any  power  or  influence  over  my 
thoughts  or  actions  thence  derived,  yet  what 
mere  memory  retained  of  their  life-giving 
truths,  proved  of  unspeakable  advantage 
when  I  became  awakened  to  the  subject  of 
2* 


18  LIFE   OF   BISHOP   EAYENSCROFT. 


religion  ;  and  I  am  constrained  to  believe, 
that  what  was  thus  iinconscionslj  sown  in 
my  heart,  though  smothered  and  choked  by 
the  levity  of  youth,  and  abused  and  per- 
verted by  the  negligence  and  sinfulness  of 
my  riper  years,  was,  neverthelessj  a  prepara- 
tion of  Heaven's  foresight  and  mercy,  for 
grace  to  quicken  me — a  mighty  help  to  my 
amazed  and  confounded  soul,  when  brought 
to  a  just  view  of  my  actual  condition  as  a 
sinner,  both  by  nature  and  by  practice. 
Without  this  help  I  might,  like  thousands 
of  others,  have  wandered  in  a  bewildered 
state,  the  prey  of  many  delusions,  engendered 
by  the  anxieties  of  a  disturbed  and  ignorant 
mind,  or  by  the  fanaticism  of  those  many 
well-meaning,  perhaps,  but  certainly  most 
ignorant  men,  who  yet  venture  to  become 
teachers  of  religion.  For  this  reason  it  is 
that  I  have  been  earnest,  during  my  min- 
istry, in  pressing  upon  parents,  and  upon 
those  w^ho  have  the  care  of  youth,  the  great 


A   HIGHER    SCHOOL   IN   ENGLAND.  19 


duty  of  furuisliing  their  tender  and  pliant 
minds  with  the  treasures  of  divine  knowl- 
edge and  saving  truth,  contained  in  God's 
revealed  Word."* 

It  is  certainly  taking  a  long  step  backward 
to  leave  the  Bishop,  in  the  maturity  of  his 
gigantic  mind,  and  to  return  to  tlie  little 
American  school-boy  in  Scotland ;  but  so  the 
course  of  the  story  leads. 

When  her  son  had  finished  his  course  at 
the  Grammar  school  where  he  had  first  been 
placed,  Mrs.  Kavenscroft  sent  him  to  a  semi- 
nary of  somewhat  higher  grade  in  the  north 
of  England.  Here,  besides  continuing  his 
classical  studies,  he  was  instructed  in  Mathe- 
matics, ISTatural  Philosophy,  and  other  sci- 
ences. The  mother  could  have  had  no  idea 
how  these  treasures  of  knowledge  would 
afterwards  be  used.  Little  did  she  think 
that  this  darling  child — now  growing  np  at 

<*  Bishop  Ravenscroft's  Works,  Vol.  I.,  p.  8,  etc. 


20 


LITE    OF    BISHOP    KATEXSCEOFT. 


sucli  a  distance  from  his  native  land — would 
again  go  back,  and  there  become,  in  after 
life,  one  of  the  boldest  leaders  in  the  warfare 
of  the  Church  of  God  against  the  mighty 
power  of  Satan  and  his  hosts  ! 


Cljii^lu   SuoulJ 


UNSETTLED   ESTATES — YOUNG   EAVENSCROFT   RETURNS   TO 

yiRGIXIA — 1789 STATE    OF    THE    COUNTRY    AT    THAT 

TIME— THE  CHURCH  AWAKING  AFTER  LONG  SLUMBER 

SUCCESS  IN  RECOVERING  PROPERTY PLANS  FOR  STUDY- 
ING LAW WILLIAM  AND  MARY  COLLEGE — DR.  MADI- 
SON, PRESIDENT  AND  BISHOP UNRESTRAINED    LICENSE 

OF  YOUTH — WORSE  AND  WORSE — FULFILLING  THE  DE- 
SIRES OF  THE  FLESH  AND  OF  THE  MIND. 


AD  Dr.  Eavenscroft  been  able  to 
make  a  satisfactory  settlement  of  Ins 
aflairs  on  leaving  Virginia,  it  seems 
more  than  likely  that  his  son  would 
never  have  returned  to  this  country. 
A  young  man  of  fortune  might 
have  found  enough  to  occupy  his  atten- 
tion among  the  refinements  and  pleasures 
of  European  society.     But  the  all- wise  Dis- 


22  LIFE    OF   BISHOP    EAVENSCKOFT. 


poser  of  human  events  had  other  purposes  in 
view. 

Soon  after  Mr.  Ravenscroft  had  entered 
upon  his  seventeenth  jear,  his  friends  thought 
it  advisable  that  he  should  return  to  Virginia, 
and  endeavor  to  recover  the  portion  of  his 
father's  estate  which  had  so  long  been  lost 
to  his  family.  Accordingly^  bidding  fare- 
well to  all  that  he  had  ever  known  or  loved, 
he  left  Scotland  in  the  beginning  of  the 
winter  of  1788,  and  reached  Yirginia  on 
IS'ew  Year's  day,  1Y89,  a  stranger  to  all 
around  him,  and  in  great  part  his  own 
master. 

'No  young  man  could  possibly  have  been 
placed  in  circumstances  of  greater  peril. 
With  no  intimate  friends  to  watch  over  and 
advise  him,  and  with  means  at  command  for 
the  gratification  of  every  desire,  it  would  not 
have  been  strange  if  he  had  become  the  vic- 
tim of  irresistible  temptations,  and  been  led 
on  blindfold  to  ruin. 


STATE   OF   THE   COUNTRY.  23 


Tlie  period  when  Mr.  Ravenscroft  landed  in 
America  was  a  most  eventful  one  in  the  liis- 
torj  of  this  country.  1789  was  the  year  when 
Geokqe  Washington  entered  upon  his  duties 
as  the  first  President  of  the  United  States, 
and  the  federal  constitution  was  adopted. 

The  earliest  permanent  settlement  of  the 
whites  had  just  been  made  within  the  limits 
of  the  present  State  of  Ohio ;  and  Tennessee, 
which  had  belonged  to  North  Carolina,  was 
ceded  to  the  general  government.  The 
»^,otton-seed,  planted  two  years  before  in 
South  Carolina,  had  begun  to  give  evidences 
of  wliat  might  be  expected  in  future  from 
the  cultivation  of  this  profitable  crop ;  and  a 
steamboat  (well-named  the  Perseverance)  had 
just  commenced  her  regular  trips  upon  the 
river  Delaware,  i  unning  eight  miles  an  hour. 

Old-fashioned  manners  and  customs  still 
prevailed  in  Virginia ;  and  a  stranger  from 
abroad,  as  he  shared  in  the  generous  and  re- 
fined hospitalities  of  the  "  Old  Dominion," 


24  LIFE   OF  BISHOP  RATENSCROFT* 


might  readily  have  imagined  himself  a  guest 
at  the  mansion  of  some  English  lord. 

The  Church,  which,  before  the  Eevolu* 
tionarj  war,  had  been  so  strong  in  Yirginia, 
was  now  well-nigh  extinct.  It  is  true,  Bishop 
Seaburj  had  been  laboring  in  Connecticut 
for  four  years  past,  and  Bishop  White  in 
Pennsylvania,  and  Bishop  Provoost  in  IS'ew 
York,  during  half  that  period,  to  rouse  the 
sinking  energies  of  the  few  Churchmen  who 
were  left,  but  little  did  Mr.  Eavenscroft  sus- 
pect that  lie  would  ever  feel  an  interest  in 
such  a  cause,  and  even  share  in  their  laboi-s ! 

He  was  so  successful  in  recovering  the 
wrecks  of  his  father's  property  that  he  soon 
became  master  of  an  ample  fortune.  By  the 
advice  of  his  friends  he  now  turned  his  at- 
tention to  law,  as  presenting  the  fairest  field 
of  honor  and  emolument,  and  he  accordingly 
entered  William  and  Mary  College,  at  Wil- 
liamsburg, Yirginia,  with  a  view  to  the  pros- 
ecution of  that  study,  and  to  the  acquisition 


WILLIAM   AND   MARV   COLLEGi:.  2o 


of  a  more  tliorongh  acqiiaintance  with  the 
sciences.  The  lectures  of  the  celebrated  Pro- 
fessor Wythe  were  the  chief  attraction  which 
determined  him  to  seek  the  benefits  of  this 
institution. 

William  and  Mary  College  dates  back  its 
history  from  the  year  1692,  and  the  list  of  its 
presidents  and  professors  includes  the  names 
of  many  who  hare  rendered  themselves  dis- 
tinguished, while  the  graduates  compare 
favorably  with  those  of  any  institution  in  the 
land.* 

When  Mr.  Earenscroft  went  to  Williams- 
buro-.  Dr.  Madison  (who  was  consecrated  the 
first  Bishop  of  Yirginia,  in  1790)  was  at  the 
head  of  the  College,  which  position  he  oc- 
cupied until  his  death  in  1812. 

The  plan  recommended  by  the  young 
man's  friends,  that  he  should  attend  a  course 
of  law  lectures,  was,  no  doubt,  a  good  one, 

«  For  a  brief  history  of  the  College,  see  Duyckinck'a 
Cyclopredia  of  American  Literature,  Vol.  I.,  p.  82. 

3 


26  LIFE   OF  BISHOP   EATENSCEOFT, 


and  miglit  have  been  of  the  utmost  advan- 
tage to  him  in  after-life  ;  but  the  time  which 
he  spent  at  William  and  Mary  was,  to  a 
great  extent,  worse  than  thrown  away.  The 
professors  in  the  several  departments  were 
able  men,  and  the  regulations  of  the  College 
were  judicious  in  themselves;  but  they  were 
not  very  rigidly  enforced,  and  the  conse- 
quence was  that  the  students  indulged  in 
habits  of  extravagance  and  dissipation  to  an 
alarming  degree.  Separated  by  the  wide 
Atlantic  from  the  good  mother  who  had 
watched  over  his  infancy  and  boyhood,  and 
supplied  by  a  too  indulgent  guardian  with 
almost  unlimited  means  of  gratifying  his 
inclinations,  Mr.  Ravenscroft,  though  but 
seventeen  years  of  age,  did  not  fall  far  be- 
hind his  companions  in  tlieir  irregularities 
and  excesses. 

His  own  straightforward  confession  will 
best  disclose  the  true  state  of  the  case.  "  Ex- 
cept at  the  hours  appropriated  to  the  lectures, 


WOKSE   AND   WORSE. 


2r 


my  time  was  at  my  own  disposal ;  and  though 
expected  to  attend  prayers  every  morning  in 
the  CoHege  chapel,  absence  was  not  strictly 
noticed,  and  very  slight  excuses  were  ad- 
mitted. Attendance  at  church  on  Sunday 
was  entirely  optional,  and  the  great  subject 
of  religion  wholly  unattended  to.* 

The  students  were  required  to  board  in 
College  ;  but  from  the  small  number — ^not 
exceeding  fifteen — from  the  low  price  of 
board,  and  the  constant  altercations  with  the 
steward — the  public  table  was  given  up,  and 
the  students  were  permitted  to  board  in  the 
taverns,  or  elsewhere,  as  suited  them.  This 
every  way  injurious  and  most  unwise  per- 
mission presented  fticilities  for  dissipation 
which  would  not  otherwise  have  been  found ; 
and  encouraged,  as  they  were,  by  the  readi- 

c-  When  young  William  Meade  (now  the  beloved  Bishop 
of  Virginia)  was  going  to  churcli,  on  Sunday  morning,  to 
be  athnitted  to  Deacon's  oi'ders  by  Bishop  Madison,  the 
students  of  the  College  were  seen  with  their  dogs  and 
guns,  setting  out  on  a  hunt ! 


^S  LIFE   OF   BISHOP   EAVENSCROFT. 


ness  with  which  credit  was  obtained  from 
persons  whose  calculations  were  formed  on 
the  heedlessness  and  improvidence  of  youth, 
temptation  was  divested  of  all  present  im- 
pediment to  its  power." 


(Lljitptcr    fbiri. 


LITTLE    PKOGRESS    MADE    AT    COLLEGE TURNING    OYER    A 

NEW  LEAF MR.  BURWELL's  DAUGHTER THE  INFLU- 
ENCE   WIIICU    SHE    WAS    ONE    DAY    TO    POSSESS VISIT 

TO  SCOTLAND — FAREWELL  TO  MOTHER  AND  FRIENDS — 
SETTLEMENT  FOR  LIFE — A  GOOD  WIFE — EIGHTEEN 
TEARS    WITHOUT     GOD     IN     THE    WORLD  —  KIND    AND 

AMIABLE     TRAITS MORALITY,     NOT     RELIGION  —  ONE 

THING  LACKING THE  FIRE  GOING  OUT  ON  THE  AL- 
TAR  THE  BLIND  LEADING  THE  BLIND GOD's  LONG- 
SUFFERING  MERCY. 


f^\OU]^G    Kavenscroft     remained,    for 
^r    n  /  some   time,   a   member   of    William 
^^    and    Mary   College ;    but    from   the 
painful  picture  presented  in  the  last 
chapter,  no  one  can  be  surprised  to 
learn  that   he   made   little   progress 
with  liis  legal  studies — and  it  does  not  ap- 
pear that  he  ever  was  admitted  to  the  bar. 
Before  leaving  TVilliamsburg,  however,  an 
3* 


30  LIFE   OF   BISHOP   EAYENSCROFT. 


event  took  place  which  was  to  be  the  means, 
in  God's  hands,  of  arresting  him  in  his  career 
of  youthful  dissipation,  and  of  bringing  him 
back  into  safer  paths.  He  here  became  ac- 
quainted with  a  daughter  of  Lewis  Burwell, 
of  Mecklenburg  County,  who  afterwards  be- 
came his  wife.  She  is  represented  as  having 
been  a  most  lovely  and  accomplished  person, 
and  one  who  exercised  a  very  beneficial  in- 
fluence over  his  wayward  disposition.  Her 
gentle  temper  was  peculiarly  adapted  to  a 
collision  with  his  impulsive  and  ardent  spirit ; 
and  she  possessed,  at  the  same  time,  a  firm- 
ness of  character  and  correctness  of  principle 
which,  Avhile  it  enabled  her  to  mould  his  less 
established  character,  preserved  her  from  the 
influence  of  his  evil  example. 

About  the  year  1792,  Mr.  Eavenscroffc  re- 
visited Scotland  for  the  last  time,  with  a  view 
of  disposing  of  his  property  there,  and  mak- 
ing a  permanent  settlement  in  Yirginia.  It 
must  have  been  a  sad  parting  with  his  wid- 


SETTLEMENT    FOR    LIFE. 


31 


owed  mother,  but  she  preferred  to  remahi  in 
the  land  of  her  fathers,  where  she  lived  in 
ffreat  comfort  with  her  two  sisters.  She 
eould  not  withhold  her  consent,  however,  to 
the  return  of  her  son  to  that  new  and  rising 
republic,  where  interest  and  inclination  both 
seemed  to  lead  him. 

At  the  age  of  twenty-one,  Mr.  Ravenscroft 
was  married  to  Miss  Burwell,  and  having 
abandoned  all  idea  of  prosecuting  the  pro- 
tbssion  of  law,  he  purchased  a  handsome  es- 
tate, near  his  lathcr-in-law,  in  the  healthy 
county  of  Lunenburgh,  intending  to  devote 
the  remainder  of  his  life  to  agricultural  pur. 
suits. 

"  Thus  removed  [he  remarks,  in  the  frag- 
ment of  his  autobiography  already  referred 
to]  from  the  temptations  and  facilities  to  vice, 
which  our  cities  and  towns  present  so  readily, 
with  regular  and  pleasant  occupation  on  my 
farm,  and  my  domestic  happiness  studied 
and  promoted  by  the  affectionate  partner  of 


32  LIFE   OF   BISHOP    RAYEXSCROFT. 


my  life,  my  years  rolled  on  as  happily — were 
the  present  life  alone  to  be  provided  for — as 
could  reasonably  be  desired.  The  personal 
regard  I  entertained  for  my  wife  increased  to 
the  highest  esteem,  and  even  veneration,  as 
the  virtues  of  her  character  opened  upon  me  ; 
while  the  prudence  and  discretion  of  her 
conduct  won  me  gi'adually  from  my  previous 
dissipated  habits."* 

Thus,  for  eighteen  years,  Mr.  Ravenscroft 
continued  to  live — a  devoted  husband,  a  kind 
master,  and  a  good  neighbor,  and  universally 
respected  by  all  who  knew  him.  Having 
never  been  blessed  with  any  children  of  his 
own,  he  acted  the  2^ art  of  a  father  towards 
five  orphans,  who  were  placed  under  his  care 
while  infants,  and  no  parent  could  have  dis- 
charged his  duties  more  conscientiously  and 
faithfully. 

But   although    many   a   deluded  moralist 

^  Bishop  Kavenscroft's  Works,  Yol.  I.,  p.  12. 


EIGHTEEN   YEARS    AVITIIOUT   GOD. 


33 


may  have  built  his  hopes  of  salvation  upon 
fi  foundation  more  slender  than  that  which 
Mr.  Eavenscroft  could  have  claimed  for  him- 
self, it  must  be  confessed  that  during  all  these 
years  he  was  living  without  God  in  the  world, 
iind  leaned  only  unto  his  own  understanding. 
With  no  serious  thought  of  religion,  his  Bible 
unread,  prayer  neglected,  and  every  means 
of  grace  despised,  how  wretched  was  his  lot, 
even  while  thus  surrounded  with  all  which 
could  minister  to  the  comfort  of  the  body  or 
pamper  worldly  pride!     So   great,  indeed, 
was  his  contempt  for  even  the  outward  forms 
of  religion,  that  for  eighteen  years  he  was 
not  present  at  any  place  of  public  worship 
more  than  six  or  seven  times,  and  then  not 
from  choice,  but  from  some  accidental  cir- 
cumstance, which  seemed  to  require  liim,  as 
an   act  of  politeness,  to  attend.     He   inter- 
ested himself,  with  his  accustomed  zeal,  in 
the  politics  of  the  day,  but  found  too  much 
£ati5fa£tion  in  the  bosom  of  the  family  to 


34  LIFE    OF    BISHOP    KAVEXSCKOFT. 


allow  ambitions  feelings  to  draw  liim  awaj 
after  the  pursuit  of  those  official  stations 
which  he  was  so  well  qualified  to  fill. 

With  all  his  wealth,  and  the  comforts  of 
his  home,  Mr.  Kavenscroft  felt  that  some- 
tJdng  was  wanting  to  complete  his  happiness 
— the  world  was  empty  and  unsatisijing, 
and  still  he  had  no  hope  beyond. 

Had  the  Church  in  Yirginia  then  possessed 
that  life  and  vigor  for  which  she  is  now  dis- 
tinguished, he  might  have  been  earlier  at- 
tracted by  "  the  beauty  of  holiness"  to  seek 
the  service  of  God.  But,  alas  \  the  fire  had 
well-nigh  burned  out  upon  her  altars,  and 
her  children,  as  sheep  having  no  shepherds, 
were  everywhere  scattered  abroad.  Mr. 
Ravenscroft  possessed  too  refined  and  well- 
cultivated  a  mind  to  be  favorably  impressed 
by  those  ruder  forms  in  which  religion  wa& 
presented  to  his  sight.  "I  soon  found  (he 
says)  that  I  knew  more  of  the  Scriptures 
from  memory  than  the  preachers,  and  was 


god's  long-suffering  mercy.  35 


vain  cnougli  to  think  that  I  understood  them 
better,  and  could  apply  them  more  correctly, 
than  the  well-meaning,  perhaps,  but  certainly 
most  ignorant,  unqualified,  and,  of  course, 
injurious  men,  who  appeared  around  in  the 
character  of  ministers  of  religion.  But  as  I 
had  no  spiritual  senses  as  yet  cpiickened  in 
me,  the  preaching  of  the  Cross,  even  from 
an  angel,  would  have  been  to  me  as  to  the 
Greeks  of  old — foolishness, 

"  Oh,  what  a  miracle  of  long-suffering, 
that  in  all  this  time  God  was  not  provoked 
to  cut  me  oft!  What  a  miracle  of  gi-ace 
that  I  am  permitted  to  tliink  and  speak  of 
it,  and  to  adore  the  riches  of  Ilis  mercy,  in 
bringing  me  to  a  better  mind !" 


FOOLISH   AND   FALSE TEUE    STATEMENT    OF    TKE    CASE— 

TUEXIXG  FROM  DARKNESS  TO    LIGHT 1810,  A  MEMOR- 
ABLE YEAR SOLEMN  REFLECTIONS — THE  RESOLUTIONS 

OF  THE  SELF-RIGHTEOUS — MORTIFTING  FAILURES — THE 

BIBLE  READ  ONCE  MORE ^RENEWED  STRUGGLES   TO    DO 

EIGHT HUMAN   STRENGTH    AGAIN    GIVES   WAY CON- 

TINCED    OF  SIN PRAYERS  AND    TEARS DAWNINGS    OF 

HOPE WHAT   CHILDREN   MAY  LEARN   FROM   THE   NAE- 

EATIYE. 

/^\      S  many  false  and  foolish  stories  were 
^r\§^  circulated,  respecting  the  causes  and 
f^--/v^  manner  of  that  marvellous  change 
^-3  in  Mr.  Kavenscroft,  by  which  he  put 
c/f,  concerning  the  foy^mer  conversa-^ 
t'lon^  the  old  man^  and  put  on  the 
new  man,  which,  after    God  is  created  in 
righteousness  and  true  holiness,  he  was  per- 
suaded by  his  friends^  towards  the  close  of 


TRUE   STATEMENT   OF   THE   CASE.  37 


life,  to  draw  up  a  statement  himself.  1 
should  consider  it  presumptuous  in  me  to 
attempt  to  give  this  narrative  in  words  other 
than  his  own : 

''It  was  in  the  year  1810  that  it  pleased 
God  to  set  my  mind  at  work,  and  gradually 
to  bring  me  to  doubt  the  dark  security  of  my 
unawakened  state.  But  I  am  not  conscious 
of  any  peculiar  incident  or  circumstance  that 
lirst  led  me  to  considerations  of  this  kind. 

"  As  I  was  tlie  manager  of  my  OAvn  estate, 
which  comprised  a  set  of  mills,  as  well  as  a 
plantation,  about  two  miles  distant  from  each 
other,  I  was,  of  course,  much  alone — at  least 
in  that  kind  of  solitude  which  gives  the  mind 
opportunity  to  commune  with  itself.  It  was 
in  my  rides  from  one  to  the  other,  and  while 
superintending  the  labors  of  my  people,  that 
a  train  of  thought,  to  which  I  was  previously 
altogether  unaccustomed,  began  to  occuj^y 
my  attention,  and  though  dismissed  once 
and  again,  would  still  return,  and  with  every 
4 


38  LIFE   OF   BISHOP   RAVENSCROFT. 


return  would  interest  me  more  and  more. 
That  the  train  of  thought  thus  suggested  con- 
cerned my  condition  as  an  accountable  crea- 
ture will  be  readily  imagined,  as,  also,  that 
on  the  review  I  found  it  bad  enough.  This 
it  was  no  difficult  thing  for  me  to  feel  and  to 
admit,  nor  as  yet  did  there  appear  much  dif- 
ficulty in  reforming  what  I  could  not  justify. 
"An  impatient  and  passionate  temper, 
with  a  most  sinful  and  hateful  habit  of  pro- 
fane swearing,  in  which  I  was  a  great  pro- 
ficient, were  my  most  open  and  besetting 
sins.  These,  however,  I  considered  as  within 
my  own  control,  and  as  such,  set  forthwith 
about  amending  them ;  but  without  any  re- 
liance upon  God  for  help,  or  without  much, 
if  any,  impression  that  it  was  at  all  needful. 
In  this  endeavor  at  reformation,  which  it 
pleased  God  thus  to  permit  me  to  make,  I 
went  on  prosperously  for  a  season,  and  began 
to  pride  myself  in  that  self-command  I  seem- 
ed to  possess.     But  my  own  weakness  was 


THE   BIBLE   READ    ONCE   MOllE.  39 

yet  to  be  showed  me,  and  when  temptation 
again  assailed  me,  all  my  boasted  self-com- 
mand was  but  as  a  rush  agaiust  the  wall.  I 
surrendered  to  passion,  and  from  passion  to 
blasphemy.  When  I  came  to  reflect  upon 
this,  then  it  was  that,  for  the  first  time  in  my 
life,  I  was  sensible  of  something  like  concern 
—some  consciousness  of  wrong  beyond  what 
was  apparent.  But  without  waiting  to  ex- 
amine further  I  hastily  concluded  to  exert 
myself  more  heartily,  and  yet  to  command 
myself  thoroughly. 

"During  these  my  endeavors,  however, 
the  Scriptures  were  more  and  more  the  ob- 
ject of  my  attention,  and  from  them  I  began 
gradually  to  discover  (what  I  was  very  loath 
to  admit)  the  true  state  and  condition  of 
human  nature.  What  little  I  had  lately 
come  to  know  of  myself,  however,  and  all 
that  I  knew  of  the  world,  seemed  to  rise  up 
as  strong  proofs  that  the  doctrine  of  our 
natural  depravity  was  true. 


4:0  LIFE    OF    BISHOP    EAVEXSCEOFT. 


"  Willing  to  escape  from  it,  I  resorted  to 
the  subterfuge  of  too  many  among  us — that 
what  we  find  in  the  Scriptures  is  figuratively 
expressed,  and  is,  therefore,  not  to  be  taken 
in  the  strictness  of  the  letter.  But  my  own 
experience  was  to  be  the  expositor  of  the 
Word.  Again  and  again  were  my  self- 
righteous  endeavors  foiled  and  defeated, 
much  as  at  the  first,  and  liumbled  and  con- 
founded, I  became  alarmed  at  what  must  be 
the  issue — if  I  was  thus  to  remain  the  sport 
of  passions  I  could  not  command — the  prey 
of  sin  I  could  not  conquer.  Something  like 
prayer  would  flow  from  my  lips,  but  it  was 
the  prayer  of  a  heart  that  yet  knew  not 
aright  its  own  plague.  One  more  efiort  was 
to  be  made,  and  Avith  great  circumspection 
did  I  watch  over  myself  for  some  weeks. 
Still  did  I  continue,  however,  my  search  in 
and  meditation  upon  the  Scriptures ;  and 
here  it  was  that  I  found  the  benefit  of  my 
early  acquaintance  with  them.     I  had  not  to 


CONVINCED   OF   SIN.  41 


look  afar  olf  for  their  doctrines,  they  were 
familiar  to  my  memory  from  a  chikl.  I  had 
known  them  thus  far,  though  now  it  was 
that  tlieir  living  proof  was  to  be  experienced. 
The  whole,  I  believe,  was  to  be  made  to  de- 
pend on  my  acquiescence  in  the  turning 
point  of  all  religion — that  we  are  lost  and 
undone,  spiritually  dead  and  helpless  in  our- 
selves— and  so  I  found  it. 

"  Again,  and  dreadfully,  did  I  fall  from 
my  own  steadfastness — temptation,  like  a 
mighty  man  that  shouteth  hy  reason  of  wi?ie, 
swept  my  strength  before  it,  carried  away 
my  resolutions  as  Sampson  did  the  gates  of 
Gaza. 

"  I  returned  to  the  house  convinced  of  my 
own  helplessness,  of  my  native  depravity, 
,and  that  to  spiritual  things  I  was  incom- 
petent. I  now  found  of  a  truth  that  i7i  me 
dwelt  no  good  thing.  I  threw  myself  upon 
my  bed  in  my  private  room — I  wept — I 
prayed.  Then  was  showed  to  me  my  folly 
4* 


4:2  LIFE    OF    BISHOP    RAVEXSCROFT. 


in  trusting  to  an  arm  of  flesli.  Then  did  it 
please  the  Lord  to  point  my  bewildered  view 
xo  Him  who  is  the  Lord  our  righteousness. 
Then  was  I  enabled  in  another  strength  to 
commit  myself  unto  His  way.  From  that 
moment  my  besetting  sin  of  profane  swear- 
ing was  overcome,  and  to  this  moment  has 
troubled  me  no  more.  But  much  was  yet  to 
be  done,  which  the  same  gracious  Friend  of 
poor  sinners  continued  to  supply,  and  to  lead 
me,  step  by  step,  to  j^ro claim  His  saving 
name,  and  declare  His  mighty  power  openly 
to  the  world." 

Thus  much  for  this  interesting  narrative. 
There  are  many  things  which  even  children 
may  learn  from  it.  That  time  is  well  spent 
in  which  they  are  employed  in  learning  by 
heart  passages  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  to  be 
recited  to  their  parents  at  home,  or  to  their 
teachers  at  Sunday  School.  These  sacred 
treasures  will  profit  them  in  after-life.  Mr. 
Bavenscroft's  history  shows,  also,  how  wretch- 


WHAT   CHILDREN    MAY    LEARN. 


43 


ed  every  cliiUl  of  Adam  must  he,  until  he 
litis  made  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  his  Friend. 
AVe  are  reminded,  too,  that  without  the  help 
of  God's  grace  we  need  not  hope  to  he  ahle 
to  do  right.  How  true  are  those  words  of 
the  Hymn : 

God  will  support  our  hearts 
With  might  before  imknowu  ; 
The  work  to  he  perform' d  is  ours, 
The  strength  is  all  His  own. 


Clrautn  liftl] 


OPEN    CONFESSION    OF    CHEIST SAD    CONDITION    OF    THE 

CHURCH EEJOICINGS    OF    THE    ENEMY REPUBLICAN 

METHODISTS THE  HUSBAND  AND  WIFE  RECEIVED  INTO 

COMMUNION THE    EVENTS    OF    THREE    TEARS — WHAT 

CONSCIENCE     SUGGESTED OBSTACLES THE     DECISION 

OF  A   BRAVE   MIND — ANOTHER   DIFFICULT    QUESTION 

THE    ORIGIN  OF   MINISTERIAL    AUTHORITY THE  STUDY 

OF     god's     ORACLES     MAKING    HIM     WISER     THAN     HIS 

teachers candidate  for  holy  orders lay 

reading harsh  judgment death  of  his  wife 

"such  a  saviour!" 


K.  EAYE^^SCKOFT  had  thus 
been  led,  by  God's  good  Spirit,  to 
renounce  all  dependence  on  his 
own  unaided  efforts,  and  to  look 
to  an  Almighty  arm  to  guide  his 
feet  into  the  ways  of  truth  and 
peace. 

He  was  too  well  read  in  the  Bible  not  to 


PAD  CONDITION  OF  THE  CHURCH.     45 


know  that  a  piiLlic  confession  of  Christ  be- 
fore the  worhl  was  required  of  liini,  and  lie 
began  to  think  of  uniting  liiniself  with  the 
Chnrch.  Ahis !  how  much  perplexity  of 
mind  he  might  have  been  spared,  if  the 
Apostolic  Church  of  God,  a  branch  of  which 
had  been  planted  in  Virginia,  had  only  been 
true  to  herself,  and  had  now  been  able  to  set 
up  her  banners  for  tokens  to  those  who  were 
seeking  for  the  true  Ark  of  the  Covenant ! 
But  such  was  not  the  case.  The  Episcopal 
Church  was  at  its  lowest  ebb.  The  little 
ettbrt  which  Bishoj)  Madison  had  been  dis- 
posed to  make  at  the  beginning  of  his  Epis- 
copate had  given  place  to  hopeless  despair. 
The  enemies  of  Zion  looked  upon  her  as 
dead.  But  had  they  forgotten  the  j^romises 
of  God  to  His  Church  ? 

In  making  a  public  confession  of  his  Sav- 
iour, Mr.  Bavenscroft,  having  never  turned 
his  attention  to  the  cpiestions  of  Church  gov- 
ernment  and   ministerial   authority,  merely 


46  LIFE   OF   BISHOP    EAVENSCROFT. 


looked  about  among  the  divers  and  dis- 
cordant sects  which  overran  the  land,  and 
chose  a  society  called  Bejpublicaii  Method- 
ists^ as  being  the  most  nnexceptionable. 
He  says  that  he  was  influenced,  in  this 
matter,  by  personal  friendship  for  one  of 
their  preachers,  Mr.  John  Robinson,  of  Char- 
lotte County. 

The  Bepublican  Methodists  had  a  station, 
for  preaching,  eight  miles  from  Mr.  Ravens- 
croft's  plantation,  and  here  he  and  his  wife 
were  admitted  to  membership,  according  to 
the  forms  of  that  body.  The  new  convert 
was  so  zealous  in  the  cause,  that  on  those 
Sundays  when  no  preacher  was  present,  he 
conducted  public  worship  himself,  and  read 
a  printed  sermon  for  the  benefit  of  the  con- 
gregation. 

Three  years  thus  passed  away,  and  Mr. 
Ravenscroft  began  to  reflect  whether  it 
might  not  be  his  duty,  in  a  country  so  des- 
titute of  religious  privileges,  to  devote  him- 


WHAT   CONSCIENCE   StJGGESTED.  47 

self  exclusively  to  the  ministry.  Conscience 
eeenied  to  nrge  liim  to  take  tins  important 
step,  while  self-intei-cst,  and  the  dread  of 
exciting  the  ridicule  of  his  neighbors,  kept 
him,  for  a  season,  in  an  unsettled  state. 

He  was  too  independent  and  bold  a  man, 
however,  to  be  influenced  long  by  consider- 
ations of  this  nature,  and  soon  the  determin- 
ation was  formed  to  enter  upon  the  work. 

But  now  the  question  occurred  to  his  mind, 
where  w^as  he  to  look  for  authority  to  act  as 
an  ambassador  for  the  Most  High  ? 

He  read,  and  studied,  and  consulted  with 
preachers  of  various  denominations  on  the 
subject,  and  at  last  he  became  firmly  con- 
vinced that  "  the  awful  deposite  of  the  Word, 
by  which  we  shall  all  be  judged,  could  never 
be  thrown  out  into  the  w^orld  to  be  scrambled 
for,  and  picked  up  by  whosoever  pleased  to 
take  hold  of  it." 

His  old  friends,  the  EepuUican  Method- 
ists, being  merely   a  voluntary   society  of 


is  LIFE   OF   BISHOP   EAVENSCliOFT. 


men  and  women,  banded  together  for  a 
good  object,  indeed,  but  with  no  authoritj 
from  God  to  establish  a  church,  could  not 
supply  what  his  reason  and  conscience 
obliged  him  to  seek  after*  He  accordingly- 
asked  for  a  letter  of  dismission  from  their 
communion,  which  being  reluctantly  grant- 
ed, they  parted  as  kind  and  aifectionate 
neighbors. 

Mr.  Ravenscroft  now  turned  his  attention 
to  the  other  religious  bodies  about  him,  but 
found  none  which  could  show  a  valid  com- 
mission for  its  ministers,  except  that  branch 
of  Christ's  Church  known  in  this  country  as 
the  Protestant  Ej^iscopal.  He  hastened  to 
Bichmond,  and  laid  his  credential  as  to 
character  and  standing  before  good  Bishop 
Moore,  and  was  received  by  him  as  a  can- 
didate for  holy  orders.  This  took  place  in 
February,  1S16.  He  was  now  required  to 
pass  one  year  in  study,  before  he  could  be 
ordained  Deacon  ;  but  during  this  period  he 


nxnm  jitdgment.  49 


made  himself  useful  as  a  lav-reader  in  the 
parishes  of  Cumberland,  Lunenburg  County, 
and  St.  James,  Mecklenburg. 

The  whole  history  of  Mr.  Ravenscroft's 
coming  into  the  E^^iscopal  Church  is  a  re- 
markable one.  There  were  no  fomily  asso* 
ciations  to  turn  his  mind  that  way,  and  he 
had  no  intimate  friend  to  exert  an  influence 
over  him.  or  place  books  in  his  hands  from 
which  information  could  be  gained.  His 
interest  and  his  inclination  led  him  in  other 
directions.  But  the  prayerful  study  of  the 
Bible,  and  that  alone,  brought  him  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  Episco]3al  Church  was 
that  which  was  founded  by  Christ  and  His 
Apostles  in  the  beginning,  and  which  was 
to  last  always,  even  unto  the  end  of  the 
world. 

Those  who  have  been  disposed  to  judge 

harshly  of  Bishop  Ravenscroft,  because  he 

so  strenuously  supported  these  views  through 

all  his  after-life,  should  remember  the  pecu- 

5 


50  LIFE  OF  BISHOP  rayf:nsceoft. 


liar  circumstances  which  brought  him  into 
the  Chnrch,  and  consider  what  very  strong 
reasons  he  had  for  believing  himself  to  be 
in  the  right. 

"  Had  he  been  trained  np  from  a  child  to 
love  and  venerate  the  Chnrch,  or  had  he 
been  led  by  the  mere  force  of  education  or 
expediency  to  become  a  member  and  a  min- 
ister of  it,  it  is  possible  that  his  feelings  in 
relation  to  it  might  have  been  somewhat 
different  from  what  they  were."^ 

Before  Mr.  Ravenscroft's  mind  had  been 
thoroughly  made  ujd  on  the  question  of 
Church  government,  he  was  called  to  bear 
a  heavy  loss,  in  the  death  of  his  beloved 
wife.  This  occurred  in  1814.  She  had  been 
baptized  in  the  Church  in  tender  infancy, 
and  had  adorned  the  doctrine  of  God  oui 
Saviour  by  her  consistent  life,  and  had  the 
satisfaction  of  seeing  her  husband,  once  so 

o  Bishop  Ravenscrott's  Works,  Vol.  I.,  p.  21. 


"  SUCU  A  SAVIOUR  !"  51 

hardened  in  Lis  sins,  a  devout  servant  of 
Christ.  As  he  watched  by  lier  dying  bed, 
she  would  oftentimes  exchiini :  "  Oh,  how 
good  it  is  to  have  a  Saviour,  and  such  a 
Saviour !" 


fiiljHjtU    ^UU). 


OEDINATIOX CALL     TO     MECKLEXBURG  —  A     VIGOEOrS 

LABOREE  OF  FORTY-FIVE — NO    SHAM    COMMISSIOX AL- 

LOWAXCES    WniCn    should    be    MADE SMALL    BEGIX- 

NIXGS THE      OFFENCE     OF     A     FAITHFUL      GOSPEL 

PECULIAR  MAN^EE "  AM  I  THE  ONLY  PEESOX  PEESEXT 

WHO    BELIEVES   IX   GOD?'' MAEK   HIS   TEACK   IX   THE 

6X0W SUCCESS XEW    CHUECH — BISHOP   MOOEE's   EE- 

POET — WELL   DESEEVED   HOXOE — DE.    WILMEE's    KIND 
COXGEATULATIOXS. 

E.  EAYENSCKOFT  was  ordained 
Deacon,  by  Bishop  Moore,  in  the 
Monumental  Church,  Richmond, 
April  25,  1817,  and  at  once  ac- 
cepted an  urgent  invitation  to  be- 
come the  minister  of  St.  James' 
Parish,  Mecklenburg  County,  where  lie  had 
done  much  good  service  as  a  lay-reader. 

The  clergy  in  Virginia  were  now  too  few, 
and  too  widely  scattered,  to  make  it  expedi- 


NO    SHAM   C0MMI8SI0X.  53 


eut  for  a  laborer  to  go  forth  without  liis  full 
commission — and  accordingly  on  the  Gtli  of 
May,  in  the  same  year,  he  was  ordained 
Priest,  in  the  church  at  Fredericksburg,  dur- 
ing the  session  of  the  Convention  in  that  place. 
Mr.  Eavenscroft  was  no  youthful  stripling, 
putting  on  his  armor  early  in  life,  and  look- 
ing forward  to  long  years  of  toil ;  but  a  man 
of  five-and-forty  years,  who  felt  that  too 
much  time  had  already  been  wasted,  and 
that  he  must  use  all  diligence,  before  his 
days  of  usefulness  should  end.  "  On  re- 
turning to  my  parish,''  he  remarks,  in  the 
closing  sentence  of  his  narrative,  "  deeply 
impressed  with  the  awful  commission  in- 
trusted to  me,  and  with  the  laborious  task 
of  rescuing  from  inveterate  prejudice  the 
doctrines,  discipline,  and  worship  of  the 
Church,^  and  of  reviving  among  the  people 

^"  A  picture  of  the  forlorn  condition  of  the  Church  in 
Virginia  "svill  be  found  in  the  Life  of  Bishop  Moore,  a 
former  volume  of  this  series. 

5* 


54:  LIFE    OF   BISHOP    RAYEXSCEOFT. 


tliat  regard  for  it  to  whicli  it  was  truly  entitled, 
I  commenced  my  ministerial  labors,  as  the 
only  real  business  I  now  had  in  life,  relying 
on  God's  mercy  and  goodness,  through  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  for  fruit  to  His  praise." 

TVe  have  had  occasion  to  notice  before  the 
very  decided  views  which  Mr.  Ravenscroft 
held  with  reference  to  the  claims  of  the 
Church,  at  whose  altars  he  was  now  com- 
missioned to  act  as  a  minister. 

ISTo  one  could  doubt  his  perfect  sincerity, 
and  those  who  differed  from  him  as  to  the 
propriety  of  bringing  forward  such  subjects 
so  often  in  the  pulpit,  were  obliged  to  honor 
him  for  his  masterly  abilities,  his  glowing 
zeal,  and  his  uncompromising  consistency. 

When  he  began  his  labors  as  a  lay-reader, 
the  Prayer  Book  was  almost  unknown  in  the 
neighborhood  where  he  officiated ;  but  iu 
tlie  course  of  fifteen  months  afterwards  he 
had  a  large  and  attentive  congregation,  and 
a  commodious  church  was  built. 


PECULIAR   MANNER.  55 


"To  some,  liowever,  his  preaching  was 
rery  oftensive,  and  brought  upon  him  that 
reproacli  to  Avliich  the  faithful  minister  of 
Christ  has  been  liable  in  every  peri(xl  of  the 
world. 

'*To  the  rich  and  worldly-minded,  espe- 
cially, to  wdiom  he  had  been  so  long  allied  in 
feeling  and  in  practice,  he  now  addressed  his 
most  heart-searching  appeals,  and  familiar  as 
he  was  with  all  their  shifts  and  evasions,  he 
exposed  them  to  themselves  with  a  fidelity 
and  truth  of  coloring  which  they  could  not 
tolerate.  Preaching  of  this  kind,  which 
they  knew  not  how  to  resist,  they  affected  to 
despise,  and  this  faithful  minister,  though 
never  deterred  for  a  moment  from  revealing 
the  whole  of  God's  will,  was  much  and  often 
grieved  at  the  deadness  and  coldness  of  this 
class  of  his  hearers." 

Mr.  Kavenscroft  had  a  manner  peculiar  to 
himself,  and  the  effect  of  some  of  his  remarks, 
made   upon   the   spur   of  the   moment,  wap 


56  LIFE    OF   BISHOP    RAVEXSCROFT. 


actually  startling.  On  a  certain  occasion, 
while  reciting  the  Apostles'  Creed,  in  the 
public  service,  finding  himself  almost  alone, 
his  voice  being  unsustained  by  the  congrega- 
tion, he  stoj)ped  short  and  exclaimed,  with 
emphatic  earnestness,  "Is  it  possible  that  I 
am  the  only  person  present  who  believes  in 
God,  the  Father  Almighty?"  The  rebuke 
was  felt  to  be  well-deserved,  and  at  once, 
with  united  voice,  priest  and  people  began 
the  simple  formulary  of  the  faith,  "  /  believe 
in  God^^  etc.  l!^o  further  advice  as  to  the 
duty  of  responding  aloud  was  needed  for  a 
long  time  to  come. 

Another  characteristic  anecdote  is  told  of 
him,  showing  the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  which 
distinguished  the  whole  course  of  his  min- 
istry. When  the  weather  was  so  inclement 
that  he  would  not  permit  the  colored  servant, 
who  acted  as  sexton,  to  accompany  him  to 
church,  he  would  take  the  keys  and  ride  off 
five   or   ten   miles   by  himself,  without  the 


MARK   HIS    TKACK   IN   THE    SNOW.  57 


smallest  expectation  of  finding  one  individual 
on  the  ground  to  attend  service.  And  then 
he  would  deliberately  ride  around  the  church 
and  leave  his  track  in  the  snow,  as  a  testi- 
mony against  the  fair-weather  Christians 
whom  the  unpleasant  day  had  kept  at  home. 

Some  may  consider  this  as  an  unnecessary 
exposure  of  his  own  health,  but  the  reason 
which  he  gives  is  one  w^hich  has  great 
weight.  "  If,"  remarked  he,  my  people 
could  say,  with  any  sort  of  plausibility,  the 
weatiier  is  bad  to-day,  and  Mr.  Eavenscroft 
will  not  turn  out,  the  consequence  would  be 
that  the  slisrhtest  inclemency  would  avail 
them  as  an  excuse  for  staying  at  home  ;  but 
I  put  a  stop  to  all  such  evasions,  by  being 
always  at  church,  let  the  weather  be  what  it 
may,  and  they  can  always  calculate  with 
certainty  upon  meeting  me^  if  they  choose  to 
turn  out  themselves." 

Such  diligence  and  devotion  were  attended 
with  their  natural  results.     By  the  blessing 


58  LIFE    OF   BISHOP    KAVENSCEOFT. 


of  God,  tlie  seed  scattered  broadcast,  and 
watered  with  fervent  prayers,  brought  forth 
an  abundant  harvest.  Bishop  Moore  re- 
marks, in  his  address  to  the  Virginia  Con- 
vention of  1818,  "  I  consecrated  a  new  church 
in  Mecklenburg,  erected  by  the  parishioners 
of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Ravenscroft.  In  that  place, 
in  which  the  Church  was  thought  to  be  ex- 
tinct, the  friends  of  our  communion  have 
awakened  from  their  slumbers  ;  aided  by  the 
exertions  of  their  faithful  and  laborious  min- 
ister, they  have  raised  a  temple  sacred  to 
the  living  God.  May  that  Saviour  whom 
they  worship  with  so  much  ardor  and  sin- 
cerity of  heart,  accept  their  sacrifice  and 
remember  them  for  good." 

During  the  same  Convention,  Mr.  Kavens- 
croft  was  elected  one  of  the  four  clerical  dele- 
gates to  represent  the  diocese  in  the  next 
General  Convention. 

It  must  have  been  extremely  gratifying  to 
one  who  had  so  recently  begun  his  labors, 


DR. 

to    find    tluat    tliey    were    thus    duly    ap- 
preciated. 

Tlie  late  Dr.  Wilmer,  a  most  eminent  cler- 
gyman of  Virginia,  thus  writes  to  Mr.  Rav- 
enscroft :  ''  The  Lord  of  the  vineyard  seems 
to  be  granting  you  the  rare  favor,  that  as 
you  have  entered  late  into  His  service  you 
should  have  the  honor  and  reward  of  doing 
much  in  a  short  space ;  while  we  who  have 
been  longer  at  the  work  hardly  begin  to 
enter  upon  the  fruits,  you  at  once  seem  to 
have  reaped  a  glorious  harvest.  You  get 
even  more  than  your  *  penny.'  "* 

^  I  hope  that  my  young  readers  will  turn  to  the  par- 
able here  referred  to,  -which  will  be  found  in  St.  Matthew, 
XX.  1-16,  and  ask.  their  minister  or  some  other  person  to 
explain  it  to  them.  There  is  no  part  of  the  Bible  more 
generally  misunderstood. 


dil]aptn  StUnttI], 


SECOITD    MARRIAGE  —  LOSSES    AND     CROSSES  —  DILIGENCE 

QnCKENED INFLUENCE    AMONG    HIS    BRETHREN — IN- 

TITATIONS    TO    DIFFERENT    PARISHES A    CALL    TO    A 

STILL  WIDER   FIELD   OP   USEFULNESS HISTORY  OF   THE 

CHURCH    IN   NORTH    CAROLINA FIRST    SETTLEMENT  BY 

THE    ENGLISH TRIALS  OF   THE   EARLY  SETTLERS THE 

REV.  JOHN   BLAIR,  MISSIONARY   AND  COMMISSARY HIS 

FIRST    REPORT FELLOW-LABORERS-— REY.    JOHN    URM- 

STON HARDSHIPS RESULTS    OF    LABOR. 

^  the  year  1818  Mr.  Eavenscroft  mar- 
ried the  second  tune.     The  lady  thus 
chosen  to  aid  and  encourage  him  in 
his  work  was  Miss  Buford,  of  Lunen- 
burg County,  the  daughter  of  one  of 
his  oldest  friends. 
During  the  winter  following  his  marriage, 
he  sustained  a  severe  loss  by  fire,  his  dwell- 
ing-house and  all  it  contained  being  burnt 


DiLlGEJrcE   QtflC^ElfEt).  ^1 


lip  -while  he  was  absent  from  home.  Mis- 
fortune  did  not  come  in  this  shape  only,  for 
the  value  of  liis  estate  was  seriously  impaired 
l)y  reason  of  the  withdrawal  of  his  attention 
from  worldly  pursuits,  and  mistaken  kindness 
in  indorsinix  for  friends  reduced  him  almost 
to  poverty. 

Xone  of  these  trials,  however,  stopped  Mr. 
Havenscroft  in  his  work.  Indeed^  they  seem- 
ed rather  to  quicken  his  diligence,  by  bring- 
ing before  his  mind  more  forcibly  than  ever 
the  important  truth,  that  the  kingdom  of  God, 
and  the  righteousness  thereof,  are  the  only 
things  which  can  endure. 

Besides  the  zeal  and  activity  displayed  in 
his  own  parish,  his  surpassing  abilities  and 
singleness  of  purpose  gave  him  an  unusual 
degree  of  influence  in  the  councils  of  the 
Church  and  the  societies  under  its  control, 
and  he  did  not  hesitate  to  stimulate  his 
brethren,  by  the  most  affectionate  appeals, 
to  constant  diligence  and  faithfulness. 
6 


62  LIFE  OF  BISHOP   RAVENSCHOFT. 


In  1823,  lie  was  invited  to  take  charge  of 
a  large  and  iioiirisliing  congregation  at  Nor- 
folk. He  would  have  consulted  his  worldly 
interests  bj  going,  but  having  made  up  his 
mind  never  to  abandon  his  own  little  flock, 
until  Providence  should  seem  plainly  to 
direct  him  elsewhere,  he  promptly  declined 
the  call.  Soon  afterwards,  he  was  applied  to 
by  the  Yestry  of  the  Monumental  Church, 
Kichmond,  to  become  the  assistant  to  the 
venerable  Bishop  Moore,  in  the  charge  of 
that  parish. 

Regarding  the  services  of  the  Bishop, 
which  were  seriously  interrupted  by  his  ad- 
ditional labors  in  this  congregation,  as  too 
important  to  the  diocese  to  be  lost  through 
any  impediment  which  his  own  private  in- 
clinations might  present,  Mr.  Eavenscroft 
was  about  to  yield  to  what  he  could  not  help 
considering  as  an  imperative  case  of  duty, 
when  another  application,  still  more  import- 
ant in  its   character,  led  him  to  turn  his 


FIRST   SETTLEMENT   OF   TIIE   ENGLISH.         63 


tlioii gilts  elsewliere,  as  the  field  where  God 
was  appointing  him  to  labor.  I  refer  to  his 
election  as  Bishop  for  the  diocese  of  Korth 
Carolina. 

And  here,  that  justice  may  be  done  to  the 
work  which  we  have  undertaken,  it  will  be 
necessary  to  give  our  readei*s  some  informa- 
tion concerning  the  new  diocese  which  was 
thus  seeking  to  supply  itself  with  an  Epis- 
copal head. 

The  first  Englishmen  who  discovered  and 
took  possession  of  the  Province  of  Carolina 
were  Amadas  and  Barlowe,  who  came  out 
to  America  under  the  direction  of  Sir  Wal- 
ter Raleigh,  in  15S4. 

France  and  Spain,  at  different  periods,  set 
np  their  respective  claims  to  the  same  fair 
reo:ion  of  the  earth.  We  have  no  room  for 
telling  the  long  story  of  the  various  mis- 
understandings and  quarrels  between  these 
three  rival  nations.* 

«  A  well-digested  account  of  the  early  history  of  Car- 


64  LIFE   OF    BISHOP   RAYENSCROFT. 


Parties  of  emigrants  from  Yirginia,  and 
some  from  the  more  northern  region  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, came  to  Carolina  in  search  of  new 
homes.  The  charter  granted  by  Charles  11. 
to  the  colonists  unfolded  a  grand  and  im- 
posing scheme  for  the  establishment  of  an 
empire  in  the  Western  World,  and  for  the 
spread  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ.   , 

]S"orth  Carolina  proper  embraced  a  district 
four  hundred  and  thirty  miles  long,  and 
about  one  hundred  and  eighteen  in  breadth, 
and  containing  an  area  equal  to  that  of  all 
England.  So  lately  as  the  year  1702,  the 
population  of  European  descent  did  not 
exceed  six  thousand.  The  settlers  lived 
widely  apart,  scattered  over  the  lace  of  a 
country  intersected  by  swamj^s  and  inlets 
of  the  sea.  Roads,  properly  so  called,  there 
were  none;  and  those  who  journeyed  from 
one  part  of  the  Province  to  another,  made 

olina  will  be  found  in  Anderson's  Ilistorj  of  the  Colonial 
Church,  Vol.  II.,  p>  307,  etc. 


HIS    FIKST    KEPOKT. 


tlieir  way,  as  best  they  might,  over  rivers 
and  through  tangled  forests,  glad  to  take 
refuge  at  night  in  the  rudest  hut,  or  inider 
tlie  shelter  of  overhanoincy  trees. 

Foremost  among  the  devoted  ministers  of 
Christ  who  came,  at  that  early  day,  to  bring 
the  knowledge  of  salvation  to  this  far-oft' 
land,  was  the  Rev.  John  Blair.  Landing  in 
Virginia,  in  January,  1704,  he  made  his  way 
on  horseback  to  Carolina,  of  which  Province 
he  had  been  apj^ointed  Commissary  by  the 
Bisho])  of  London.*  At  this  time  there 
were  three  small  churches  in  the  Colony, 
with  glebes  belonging  to  them. 

^'  I  found  (he  says)  in  the  country  a  great 
many  children  to  be  baptized,  where  I  hap- 
tized  about  a  hundred,  and  there  are  a  great 
many  still  to  be  baptized  whose  parents 
w^ould  not  condescend  to  have  them  bap- 
tized  with   godfathers   and   godmothers.      I 

^  The  office  of  Commissary  is  explained  in  the  Life  of 
Bishop  Dehon. 

6* 


6Q  LIFE    OF   BISHOP   RAVENSCROFT. 


married  none  in  the  country,  for  tliat  was  a 
perquisite  belonging  to  the  magistrates  which 
I  was  not  desirous  to  deprive  them  of.  1 
preached  twice  every  Sunday,  and  often  on 
the  week-days,  when  their  vestries  met,  or 
could  appoint  them  to  bring  their  children  to 
be  baptized. 

"Besides  such  a  solitary,  toilsome,  and 
hard  living  as  I  met  with,  there  were  very 
sufficient  discouragements.  I  was  distant 
from  any  minister  one  liundred  and  twenty 
miles,  so  that  if  any  difficulty  or  doubt  should 
happen,  with  whom  should  I  consult  ?  And, 
for  my  travelling  through  the  country,  I  rode, 
one  day  with  another,  Sunday  only  excepted, 
above  thirty  miles  per  diem,  in  the  worst 
roads  that  ever  I  saw,  and  have  sometimes 
lain  whole  ni2:hts  in  the  woods.""^ 

Mr.  Blair's  fellow-laborers,  sent  out  by  the 
Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel,  in 

"  The  whole  report  will  be  found  in  Vol.  I.  of  the  Prot- 
estant Episcopal  Historical  Society,  p.  181. 


HARDSHIPS.  67 


1707,  and  the  few  next  years,  were  Adams, 
Gordon,  Urraston,  Kainsford,  Newnan,  Gar- 
zia,  and  Moir — some  of  whom,  worn  ont  by 
the  hardships  which  poverty  and  fiitigne  and 
the  inditi'erence  or  liostility  of  iha  people 
brought  upon  them,  returned  soon  afterwards 
to  Enghmd. 

Tlie  Eev.  John  Urmston,  writing  home, 
July,  1711,  says,  "I  am  at  last,  together 
with  my  family,  in  manifest  danger  of  per- 
ishinor  for  want  of  food.  We  have  lived 
many  a  day  only  on  a  dry  crust  and  a 
drauorht  of  salt  Avater  out  of  the  Sound." 

Again,  speaking  of  the  difficulty  of  reach- 
ing the  different  parts  of  his  mission,  he  re- 
marks :  "  In  many  places  there  are  great 
rivers,  from  one,  two,  to  six,  twelve,  and  fif- 
teen miles  over,  no  ferry,  neither  will  the 
people  be  at  the  trouble  of  setting  me  over. 

'^  He  that  will  answer  the  end  of  his  mis- 
sion must  not  only  have  a  good  horse  but  a 
good  boat,   and    a    couple    of    experienced 


6S  LIFE   OF   BISHOP  EATENSCEOFT, 


watermen.  I  am  forced  to  work  hard  witli 
axe,  hoe,  and  spade.  I  have  not  a  stick  to 
burn  for  any  use  but  what  I  cut  down  with 
my  own  hands." 

But  in  spite  of  all  these  difficulties  the 
missionary  persevered,  and  as  a  part  of  the 
fruits  of  his  labors,  he  reports  the  baptism  of 
a  hundred  and  fifty-four  childi-en* 


Cljiiptcr   (!5igtTt|[. 

THE  REV.  MR.  RAINSFOKD SERVICE   UNDER   THE  MULBEE- 

EY-TEEE — BAPTISM  OF  NEGROES LODGING  IN  THE  OLD 

TOBACCO   BARN INDIAN    WARS — WEARIED    AND  WORN 

OUT FRESC    LABORERS    IN   THE    FIELD — EEV.    THOMAS 

NEWNAN — A  LARGE  PARISH HOW  THE  SUNDAYS  WERE 

DIVIDED OVER-EXERTION    AND    EXPOSURE    DO    THEIR 

WORK STILL    ANOTHER    MISSIONARY LABORING    YET 

MORE   ABUNDANTLY DEVOTED   LAYMEN DESIRE    FOE 

BISHOPS. 

^^,^^HE  Eev.  Giles  Rainsford,  who  came 
^}H  Pi'^  ^^  Carolina  about  the  same  time  with 
Mr.  Urmston,  had  the  same  difficul- 
ties to  contend  witli,  but  was  not 
unrewarded  with  some  tokens  of  suc- 
cess. 

At  the  first  service  which  he  held,  many- 
persons  were  present  who  had  hitherto  been 
perfect    strangers    to    the    worship    of    the 


TO  LIFE   OF   BISHOP   ItAVENSCEOFT. 


Church.  His  regular  station  was  Chowan, 
but  he  extended  his  laboi*s  to  many  other 
points.  At  an  old  Indian  town  on  the  north 
shore,  great  crowds  attended,  and  he  baptized 
seventeen  children.  The  next  week  he  of- 
ficiated at  the  house  of  a  Mr.  Garrat,  at  the 
upper  end  of  Chowan,  where  such  numbers 
turned  out  to  hear  him,  that  he  took  his  sta- 
tion under  a  large  mulberry-tree,  ^nd  preach- 
ed to  them  out  of  doors.  The  missionary 
was  gratified  by  the  devout  behavior  of  the 
people,  and  by  the  heai'tiness  with  which 
they  united  in  the  responses  and  singing. 

"  By  much  importunity,"  he  says,  ^'  I  pre- 
vailed on  Mr.  Martin  to  let  me  baptize  three 
of  his  negroes.  All  the  arguments  I  could 
make  use  of  would  scarce  effect  it,  till  Bishop 
Fleetwood's  sermon,  preached  before  the  So- 
ciety, turned  the  scale." 

Having  once  made  a  beginning,  Mr. 
Bainsford  persevered  in  his  efforts  for  the 
benefit   of  tlie   colored  people^  and  in  one 


INDIAN    WARS. 


71 


year  he  baptized  no  less  than  forty  of 
them. 

The  accommodations  for  a  clergyman's 
comfort  were  poor  indeed.  Speaking  on  this 
subject,  he  remarks :  "  My  lodging,  for  the 
best  of  my  time,  was  in  an  old  tobacco-hour^e, 
and  exposed,  even  in  my  bed,  to  the  injuries 
and  violence  of  bad  weather,  with  other  in- 
conveniences, only  to  settle  myself  where  I 
thought  I  had  an  opportunity  of  doing  most 
good." 

The  laboi-s  of  Mr.  Urmston  and  Mr.  Eains- 
ford  were  seriously  interrupted  by  the  Indian 
wars,  which,  for  a  season,  seemed  to  threaten 
the  total  ruin  of  the  colony.  Had  it  not 
been  for  the  timely  assistance  rendered  by 
the  settlers  of  the  neighboring  province  of 
South  Carolina,  there  seems  every  reason  to 
believe  that  the  cunning  devices  of  the 
enemy  would  have  been  successful. 

The  two  missionaries  whose  course  we 
have  thus  far  pursued,  finally  became  com- 


72  LtFE  OF  BISHOP  EAVENSCEOFT^ 


pletely  worn  out  and  discouraged,  and  re- 
turned to  England. 

The  Eev.  William  Gordon  and  the  Rev, 
James  Adams  came  together  as  missionaries 
to  ^orth  Carolina,  in  ITOT,  and  after  experi- 
encing hardships  and  ^^rivations  like  those 
already  described,  the  former  went  back 
home  at  the  close  of  a  year,  and  the  latter 
died  as  he  was  preparing  to  follow  him. 

Towards  the  close  of  1821^  the  Rev, 
Thomas  JS'ewnan  was  sent  as  a  missionary 
to  the  j^rovince.  His  first  rej)ort  to  tlie  So- 
ciety, dated  June,  1822,  contains  this  inter- 
esting statement  of  his  labors  : 

''After  a  long  and  fatiguing  voyage  of 
above  four  months,  myself  and  little  family 
arrived  at  Carolina.  Tlie  late  Governor 
Eden  being  dead,  I  waited  upon  the  Presi- 
dent, a  worthy  gentleman,  delivered  him  my 
credentials,  with  which  he  declared  himself 
satisfied,  and  received  me  with  great  kind- 
nm&j  a?^r.r,espej3t}..^,J  l^p£e^,j[^g^^ll  do  a  great 


HOW   THE    SUNDAYS    WERE   DIVIDED.  iO 

deal  of  good.     The  Yestry  have  laid  out  my 
journeys  where  I  am  to  officiate.     The  first 
Sunday  I  go  by  water,  and  some  few  miles 
by  land,  and   preach   at  Esquire  Ducking- 
field's  House  (which  is  large  enough  to  hold 
a  good  congregation),  till  such  time  as  they 
can  build  a  church.     The  second  Sunday  I 
take  a  journey  up  to  a  place  called  Maharim, 
about  forty  miles  off,  where  there  are  abun- 
dance of  inhabitants,  who  are  also  making  a 
collection  to  build  a  church  forthwith.     The 
third  Sunday  I  perform  Divine   Service  at 
Esquire  Duckingfield's.     The  fourth  Sunday 
I  go  up  to  a  place  called  Wicacon,  about 
thirty  miles'  journey.     The  fifth  Sunday  I 
cross  the  Sound  to  go  to  Eden  Town,  where 
the  Yestry  have    also   proposed  to   build  a 
church  very  soon.     The.  sixth  Sunday  I  go 
up  to    a  chapel   on  the   south  shore,  about 
twelve  miles  by  water,  and  the  seventh  Sun- 
day begin  the  same  course  again.     But  once 
every  quarter   I   go   up   to   a  place   called 
7 


74:  LIFE   OF  BISHOP   EAVENSCEOFT. 


Renoque — eighty  miles'  journey — and  the 
^ve  last  Sundays  of  the  year  the  Yestry 
allow  I  may  go  my  rounds,  and  visit  the  re- 
mote parts  of  the  country,  where  some  in- 
habitants live,  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles 
off — people  who  will  scarce  ever  have  the 
opportunity  of  hearing  me,  or  of  having  their 
children  baptized,  unless  I  go  among  them."* 
Surely  this  was  a  pretty  extensive  field  to  be 
cultivated  by  one  single-handed  laborer. 

Mr.  ^Newnan  proved  himself  to  be  a  work- 
man who  needed  not  to  be  ashamed,  for  God 
rewarded  him  with  good  success ;  but  his 
severe  exertions,  and  exposure  in  all  kinds 
of  weather,  brought  on  severe  illness,  under 
which  he  sunk,  in  1723,  much  to  the  grief 
of  his  people. 

In  1732,  Mr.  John  Boyd,  who  had  lived 
some  years  in  Carolina,  went  to  England, 
and  having  received  ordination  at  the  hands 

«  Humphrey's    History  of    the  Propagation    Society, 
Chapter  V. 


A   LARGE   PARISH.  75 


of  the  Bisliop  of  London,  returned  at  once  as 
a  missionary  to  the  province.  His  parish, 
Albemarle  County,  was  one  hundred  miles 
in  length  and  fifty  in  breadth,  and  he 
preached  in  seven  different  places,  thus 
obliging  him  to  ride  two  hundred  and  sixty 
miles  every  month.  "  This  will  convey  some 
idea  of  the  painful  destitution  of  the  means 
of  grace  in  which  a  great  part  of  the  settlers 
must  have  lived.  The  duty  of  many  clergy- 
men was  laid  upon  one,  who  was,  of  course, 
unable  to  meet  the  requirements  of  so  exten- 
sive a  district.  Even  one,  however,  could  do 
something,  and  was  at  least  a  witness  to  the 
colonists  that  they  were  not  altogether  for- 
gotten by  the  mother  clmrch.  In  1735,  he 
had  baptized  one  thousand  children  and 
thirty  adults."  ^  He  was  also  the  means  of 
bringing  back  great  numbers  into  the  "old 
paths"  of  the  Church,  who  had  been  drawn 

°  Hawkins'  History  of  Missions  of  the  English  Church, 
p.  77. 


76  I^IFE   OF   BISHOP   RAYENSCKOFT. 

off  by  teachers  of  various  persuasions  around 
them.  Mr.  Boyd  ended  his  earthly  toils  in 
1738.  We  have  spoken  thus  fer  of  the 
efforts  of  the  clergy  in  advancing  the  inter- 
ests of  the  Gospel;  but  many  of  the  laity 
were  scarcely  less  earnest  and  devoted. 
Colonel  Eden,  governor  of  the  colony,  proved 
himself  to  be  the  warm  friend  of  the  Church. 
Arthur  Dobbs,  Esq.,  who  held  the  same  office 
afterwards,  was  equally  zealous,  and  warmly 
seconded  the  efforts  which  were  made  to 
induce  the  English  Goverment  to  send  out 
Bishoj^s  to  America. 


Cl]itgtor  ^intlr. 


A    -WELL-TRIED    LAYMAX    TURXIXG    MISSIOXART A    HUN- 
DEED     BAPTISMS     A     DAY — MR.     GARZIA — THE     FIFTY 

POUNDS  PER  ANNUM — SCANTY   LIVING CLEMENT  HALL 

WIDE    FIELD  OF  LABOR,  AND  MUCH  ACCOMPLISHED  IN 

IT HARD  TOIL RESTING  FROM  HIS  LABORS SIX  CLER- 
GYMEN   IN    THE    PROVINCE AMERICAN    EEYOLUTIOX 

DARK  AND  DISMAL  DAYS  FOR  THE  CHURCH THE  RALLY 

OF    1790 ANOTHER    RELAPSE — THE    DAY-STAR    ARISES 

AT  LAST. 


E  cannot  hope  to  do  justice  to  the 
D  labors  of  the  faithful  missionaries 
who  gave  their  lives  to  the  work 
of  preaching  the  Gospel  in  Xorth 
Carolina,  but  we  can  at  least  pre- 
vent their  names  from  beins:  alto- 
gether  forgotten. 

In  1739,  Mr.  James  Moir,  who  had  spent 
six  years  in  South  Carolina,  where  he  had 


78  LIFE   OF   BISHOP   EAVENSCEOFT. 


gained  many  friends,  was  ordained  mission- 
ary for  the  northern  province.  His  field  of 
labor  extended  along  the  coast  for  a  hundred 
and  fifty  miles,  and  the  peoj)le  were  so  scat- 
tered that  the  most  he  could  hope  to  do  was 
to  visit  them  occasionally,  for  the  purpose  of 
preaching  and  administering  the  sacraments. 

On  some  of  these  journeys  he  baptized  as 
many  as  a  hundred  children  a  day. 

Mr.  Garzia,  another  missionary,  states  that 
during  the  period  of  five  years  (from  1733  to 
1738),  while  he  served  the  j)arish  of  St. 
Thomas,  he  baptized  two  thousand  two  hun- 
dred and  seventy-eight  persons. 

The  Society  in  England  which  sent  out 
clergymen  to  the  colonies,  allowed  each  one 
fifty  pounds  (§250)  a  year  towards  his  sup- 
port. For  his  main  dependence,  however, 
the  clergyman  was  expected  to  look  to  the 
people  for  whose  benefit  he  labored ;  but  this 
reliance  was  found  to  be  most  uncertain,  and 
oftentimes  failed  him  entirely.     The  settlers. 


CLEMENT   HALL.  Y9 

not  always  in  very  prosperous  circumstances 
themselves,  paid  their  ministers  in  rice,  or  in 
paper  money,  which  was  of  little  value,  and 
not  untrequently  in  empty  promises  alone. 

But  this  sad  story  is  not  a  new  or  strange 
one.  There  are  multitudes  of  God's  chosen 
servants  now  laboring  in  His  vineyard,  whose 
bodily  wants  are  as  little  cared  for  by  those 
for  whom  they  are  wearing  out  their  strength. 
AVe  spoke,  in  the  last  chapter,  of  the  case  of 
Mr.  Boyd,  wdio,  having  lived  as  a  layman  for 
several  years  in  the  province,  and  witnessed 
the  spiritual  destitution  of  the  inhabitants, 
devoted  himself  to  the  ministry. 

Another  instance  of  the  kind  is  now  to  be 
recorded.  Clement  Hall,  who  had  officiated 
for  some  time  as  lay  reader  in  congregations 
which  could  not  secure  the  services  of  a  cler- 
gyman, went  to  England,  in  IT-iS,  with  the 
highest  testimonials,  and,  having  received 
ordination,  returned  to  jSTorth  Carolina  as  a 
missionary. 


80  LIFE   OF   BISHOP   RAYEXSCKOFT. 


Although  he  chiefly  confined  himself  to 
Chowan  County,  he  extended  his  labors,  at 
regular  periods,  to  several  others.  From  one 
of  his  rejDorts  it  appears  that,  within  the 
space  of  three  weeks,  he  had  preached  six- 
teen times,  and  baptized  twenty  adults  and 
four  hundred  children.  "But  the  mere  re- 
cital of  numbers  w^ould  de&cribe  very  imper- 
fectly the  amount  of  labor  involved  in  such 
visitations.  The  distance  and  difficulties  of 
the  journeys  which  they  required  must  also 
be  taken  into  account ;  and  in  the  case  of 
Mr.  Hall,  the  difficulties  became  greater 
through  his  own  weakness  of  health.  'No 
sooner  did  he  end  one  visitation  than  he 
made  prej^aration  for  another;  and,  except 
when  sickness  laid  him  prostrate,  his  work 
ceased  not  for  a  single  day.  In  the  face  of 
much  opposition  and  discouragement,  he  still 
pressed  onward,  and,  in  many  places,  was 
cheered  by  the  eager  sympathy  of  the 
people.     The  chapels  and  court-houses  were 


HARD    TOIL.  81 


seldom  large  enough  to  contain  half  the 
numbers  who  flocked  together  to  hear  him. 
Sometimes  the  place  of  their  solemn  meeting 
was  beneath  the  shades  of  the  forest ;  at 
other  times,  by  the  river-side,  or  upon  the 
sea-shore,  the  work  of  truth  and  holiness  was 
permitted  to  '  have  free  course  and  be  glori- 
fied.' A  summary  of  the  labors  of  Clement 
Hall,  made  about  eight  years  after  he  had 
entered  upon  them,  shows  that,  at  that  time 
(1752),  he  had  journeyed  about  14,000  miles, 
preached  nearly  TOO  sermons,  baptized  more 
than  G,000  children  and  grown-up  persons 
(among  whom  were  several  hundred  negroes 
and  Indians),  administered  the  Loi'd's  Suj^per 
frequently  to  as  many  as  two  or  three  hun- 
dred in  a  single  journey,  besides  performing 
the  countless  other  offices  of  visiting  the  sick, 
and  of  catechising  the  young,  which  he  was 
everywhere   careful   to   do."  ^     All   this,  it 

o  Anderson's  History  of  the  Colonial  Church,   HI., 
491-2. 


82  LIFE    OF   BISHOP   KAVEXSCKOFT. 


must  be  remembered,  was  accomplished  by 
one  whose  health  was  never  robust,  and  who 
was  oftentimes  laid  up  by  sickness. 

After  sixteen  years  of  hard  toil,  Mr.  Hall 
closed  his  useful  career  in  the  bosom  of  an 
affectionate  and  grateful  people. 

The  fields  were  white  for  the  harvest,  but 
the  laborers  were  altogether  too  few  to  per- 
form the  necessary  work.  In  1764,  Governor 
Dobbs  reported  that  there  were  at  that  time 
only  six  clergymen  to  do  duty  in  twenty-nine 
counties,  or  parishes,  and  very  properly  adds 
that  such  was  likely  to  be  the  case  where 
they  had  "  no  Bishops  to  visit  the  clergy, 
and  to  confirm  and  confer  orders." 

Nothing  out  of  the  ordinary  course  of 
things  occurred  from  this  date  until  the 
period  of  the  American  Kevolution.  The 
Church  in  !N"orth  Carolina,  weak  as  it  was 
before,  was  reduced  to  a  condition  deplorable 
indeed,  during  the  continuance  of  this  mem- 
orable  struggle  for  our  national  independ- 


TIIK   RALLY   OF   1790.  83 

ence.  Only  four  of  licr  clergy  remained 
steady  at  their  posts,  to  discharge  the  duties 
of  their  holy  office. 

At  the  close  of  the  war,  the  Episcopal 
Church  in  North  Carolina  was  brought  down 
to  almost  as  hopeless  a  state  as  even  her 
worst  enemies  could  desire.  And  so  things 
continued  until  1790,  when  an  abortive  at- 
tempt was  made  by  her  few  remaining  chil- 
dren to  revive  their  drooping  spirits.  In 
that  year  a  Convention  was  appointed  to 
meet  at  Tarborough,  which  accordingly  as- 
sembled on  the  12th  of  :N'ovember.  Dele- 
gates were  appointed  to  attend  the  General 
Conven-ion,  which  was  to  be  held  in  New 
York,  in  1792. 

The  Rev.  James  L.  Wilson  and  Dr.  John 
Leigh  proceeded  to  New  York  at  the  time 
appointed ;  but  the  voyage  proved  to  be  so 
unusually  long,  that  the  Convention  had  ad- 
journed before  their  arrival  there.  Twenty- 
three  years  passed  away,  and  the  fortunes  of 


84:  LIFE   OF  BISHOP   EAVEKSCEOFT. 


the  Churcli  in  Xortli  Carolina  were  in  no 
wise  improved.  From  1Y94  to  1817  all  was 
dark  and  dreary,  and  no  star  appeared  in 
any  quarter  of  the  horizon. 

"It  was  then,"  writes  one  who  was  him 
self  an  actor  npon  the  stage,  "it  was  then 
that  the  day-star  from  on  high  visited  us  in 
mercy  ;  when  two  heaven-sent  heralds  of  the 
everlasting  Gospel  (the  Rev.  Adam  Empie 
and  the  Rev.  Bethel  Judd)  came  to  Wilming- 
ton and  Fayetteville,  and  there  laid  the 
foundation  of  the  restoration  of  the  Episcopal 
Church  and  cause  in  I^orth  Carolina."  * 

"  From  a  long  and  interesting  letter  of  the  Eev.  Eobert 
J.  Miller,  published  by  Dr.  Hawks  in  the  Church  Review, 
Vol.  III.,  p.  309.  In  1794  the  Eev.  Charles  Pettigrew 
was  elected  Bishop  of  North  Carolina,  but  was  never  con- 
secrated. Mr.  Pettigrew  considered  the  appointment  as 
premature,  and  only  consented  to  it  to  prevent  an  im- 
proper person  from  receiving  this  high  and  holy  office. 


A  FEW  MOKE  INTEKMEDIATE  STEPS  —  COXTEXTIOIC  AT 
NEWBERN  IN  1817 — TUE  SESSION  IN  THE  TEAE  FOL- 
LOWING  AN    OLD    PAMPHLET CONVENTION   AT    FAY" 

ETTEVILLE  —  IMPORTANT    PROCEEDINGS REPORT    ON 

THE    STATE    OF    THE    CHURCH    IN    NORTH    CAROLINA- 
BISHOP    MOORe's    FIRST    VISITATION  TO  THE    DIOCESE 

THE  LABORS  OF  A  TEAR — GOOD  HOPES  FOR  TUE  FUTURE. 


(VO)/t  E  are  now  drawing  near  tli 
-d'^IIj  ^  when  the  subject  of  this 
l^i^l    will    appear    before   ns   in 


E  are  now  drawing  near  the  period 

memoir 
appear    belore   ns   in   a  new 
.VX^^5    and  more  important  relation  to  the 
Q^      Church.     But  it  Avill  be  necessary 
^         to  notice  two  or  three  intermediate 
steps,  which  prepared  the  way  for  his  re- 
moval to  iS^orth  Carolina. 

A  Convention  was  held  in  N"ewbern,  in 
June,  1817,  attended  by  three  clergymen  and 
8 


86  LIFE   OF   BISHOP   EAVE^^SCIlOFT. 


six  or  eiglit  lay  delegates,  when  a  constitu- 
tion was  adopted,  and  an  address  made  to 
the  friends  of  the  Church  throughout  the 
State,  proposing  a  second  convention  the  fol- 
lowing year.  This  assembly  was  more  nu- 
merously attended  than  the  former,  and  the 
Church  from  that  time  began  to  rouse  her- 
self from  her  death-like  slumber. 

The  writer  has  now  before  him  the  unpre- 
tending little  pamphlet  in  which  the  proceed- 
ings of  that  important  Convention  are  pre- 
served, "  Printed  [as  the  dingy  title-page 
informs  us]  by  William  Ilollingshead  for 
Thomas  Loring.     Wilmington,  IST.  C,  1818." 

The  delegates  met  at  Fayetteville  on  the 
second  of  April,  and,  after  morning  prayer 
by  the  Eev.  John  Avery,  of  St.  Paul's 
Church,  Edenton,  and  an  approj)riate  sermon 
from  the  Rev.  Adam  Emj^ie,  the  Holy  Com- 
munion was  celebrated.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Em- 
pie,  Rector  of  St.  James'  Church,  Wilming- 
ton, was  then  re  elected  Secretary,  and  the 


CONVENTION    AT    FAYETTEVILLE.  87 


Hev.  Betliol  Judd,  Kector  of  the  cliurch  iu 
which  the  Convention  met,  was  chosen  Pres- 
ident. Be."?ides  these  clergymen,  tlie  Rev. 
Riclmrd  S.  Mason,  of  Christ's  Church,  Xew- 
bern,  was  present  as  a  member  of  the  body, 
and  the  Rev.  John  PhiUips,  of  Virginia,  was 
admitted  to  an  honorary  seat. 

Seven  hiy  delegates  attended  the  Conven- 
tion. In  conformity  with  the  appointment 
made  at  the  former  Convention,  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Judd  reported  that  Bishop  Moore,  of 
Virginia,  consented  to  i^erform  Episcopal 
offices  in  Xorth  Carolina,  and  that  he  Avould 
be  ready  to  visit  the  congregations  of  the 
diocese  during  the  ensuing  summer  or  autumn. 

The  Committee  on  the  State  of  the  Church 
made  the  following  statement  in  regard  to 
its  condition  and  prospects  : — "  In  Novem- 
ber, 1816,  the  Rev.  Bethel  Judd,  of  the 
diocese  of  Connecticut,  and  the  Rev.  A. 
Empie,  of  the  diocese  of  JN'ew  York,  being 
deprived  of  health,  and  advised  to  change 


88  LIFE   OF   BISHOP   EAVEXSCEOFT.- 


their  climate,  met  at  Wilmington,  and  dur- 
ing the  subsequent  winter  officiated  in  the 
church  at  that  place.  Previously  to  their 
arrival,  there  was  no  Episcopal  clergyman 
in  this  State,  and  but  one  congregation 
in  which  the  worship  of  our  Church  was 
performed.  By  their  joint  endeavors,  how- 
ever, together  with  the  aid  of  the  pious 
and  zealous  members  of  the  congregation 
at  "Wilmington,  under  the  blessing  of  God, 
piety  and  devout  attention  to  religious  ordi- 
nances rapidly  increased.  Since  the  first 
of  the  following  May  the  charge  of  the 
congregation  has  devolved  entirely  u]3on  its 
present  Eector,  the  Kev.  A.  Empie,  whose 
ministrations  have  been  greatly  blessed  to 
his  own  comfort,  to  the  satisfaction  of  his 
Christian  friends,  and,  we  trust,  to  the  glory 
of  God. 

"On  the  1st  of  May,  1817,  the  Kev.  B. 
Judd  removed  his  station  to  the  charge  of  a 
congregation,  which,  on  the  preceding  Easter 


IMPORTANT   rROCEEDINGS.  89 


Monday,  luul  by  liini  been  organized  in 
Favetteville.  The  zeal  of  that  congregation 
— of  Avhich  young  men  form  a  principal 
part — lias  been  eminently  evinced  by  their 
regular  and  devout  attention  to  the  worship 
of  the  Church,  by  their  liberal  contributions 
for  the  support  of  their  minister,  and  by 
their  donations  and  exertions  for  the  erection 
of  a  chnrch,  which  will  soon  be  completed, 
and  which,  when  completed,  will  be  equal, 
perhaps,  in  point  of  elegance,  to  any  in  the 
State. 

^'  About  the  1st  of  January,  1817,  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Clay  took  charge  of  the  chnrch  at 
IS^ewbern,  and  by  his  assiduity  and  talents 
gave  great  hopes  of  extensive  usefulness ; 
but  circumstances  inducing  his  removal  to 
the  diocese  of  Maryland,  cast  a  gloom  for  a 
time  over  the  prospects,  and  damped  the 
zeal  of  the  friends  of  Zion.  A  seasonable 
relief,  however,  is  anticipated  from  the  talents 
and  zealous  efforts  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Mason, 
8* 


90  LIFE   OF   BISHOP    RAYENSCEOFT. 


wlio  has  recently-  commenced  liis  labors  in 
that  congregation  with  everj  prospect  of  suc- 
cess. The  Rev.  Mr,  Averj,  having  for  some 
time  taught  an  academy,  and  performed  the 
duties  of  lay-reader  at  Edenton,  was  ordained 
in  October  last,  and  now  officiates  as  the 
minister  of  that  congregation  ;  which,  though 
not  numerous,  gives  good  evidence  of  its 
desire  to  promote  religion,  particularly  by  a 
very  generous  contribution  for  the  support 
of  missionaries  in  this  State — an  object  in 
which  all  the  friends  of  our  Church  should 
feel  a  deep  interest,  and  to  which  we  cherish 
the  hope  that  they  will  be  liberal  to  the 
utmost  extent  of  their  means." 

A  great  deal  had  certainly  been  accom- 
plished during  the  space  of  a  single  year, 
and  much  more  yet  remained  to  be  done. 
The  materials  out  of  which  the  living  temple 
was  to  be  built  up  were  ready  at  hand  ;  but 
more  clergymen  were  needed  to  go  on  with 
the  work. 


THE    LxVBORS    OF    A    YEAR.  91 


According  to  his  promise,  Bishop  Moore 
made  a  visit  to  the  parishes  in  Xorth  Caro- 
lina, ill  the  autumn  of  1818,  and  thus  speaks 
of  it  in  his  address  to  the  Virginia  Conven- 
tion the  next  year.  "  The  Church  in  iS'orth 
Carohna  is  rising  in  all  the  vigor  of  youth, 
A  new  ediiice  has  been  lately  erected  in 
Fayetteville,  an  ornament  to  the  town,  and 
a  credit  to  the  exertions  of  its  founders, 
which  I  consecrated  to  the  service  of  Al- 
mighty God.  I  confirmed  in  that  place 
sixty  persons,  and  admitted  the  Eev.  Mr. 
Shaw  to  the  order  of  Deacons.  Among  the 
list  of  worthies  who  have  exerted  themselves 
in  the  building  of  the  church  in  Fayetteville, 
I  find  the  names  of  Cameron  and  Winslow, 
the  sons  of  two  of  our  deceased  clergy. 
May  the  spirit  of  their  fathers  continue  to 
animate  their  bosoms,  and  may  the  children 
of  other  ministers  imitate  their  noble  and 
laudable  example ! 

"  The  Church  in  Wilmington  is  also  in  a 


92 


LIFE   OF   BISHOP   K.VVENSCEOFT. 


prosperous  condition.  I  preached  in  that 
phace  to  pious,  crowded  auditories,  and  con- 
iirmed  one  hundred  and  thirtj-three  persons. 
Newbern  is  also  rising  in  importance.  The 
cono:re2:ation  have  determined  to  erect  a  new 
church,  upon  the  j)lan  of  that  in  Fajetteville. 
I  preached  at  Kewhern  five  times  in  three 
days,  confirmed  fifty-two  persons,  and  ad- 
ministered the  Lord's  Supper  to  a  large  body 
of  pious  communicants.  I  visited  Washing- 
ton, Greenville,  and  Tarborough,  and  preach- 
ed several  times  in  each  place." 


(blr^ttx  61eijcnt!r. 

BISHOP  MOORE  VISITS   NORTH   CAROLINA   AGAIN — REPORT 

OF    HIS    LABORS    THERE IMPORTANT    STEP    IN    1823 

MR.  RAVENSCROFT  CHOSEN  BISHOP  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA 

QUALIFICATIONS  FOR   THIS  POSITION CONSECRATION 

ENTERS    INTO    THE    HARVEST — SETTLEMENT  OF  FIRST 

PRINCIPLES — SERMON  AT  THE    PRIMARY  CONVENTION 

ENERGY     IN    PREACHING ANECDOTE KNOWLEDGE    OF 

HUMAN  NATURE — THE  STAGE-COACH  DISCUSSION  ABOUT 
RACE- HORSES,  AND  WHAT  GREW  OUT  OF  IT. 


^^^HE  next  year  (1819)  good  Bishop 
l/^rn  ]\Xoore,  besides  attending  faithfully 
to  his  own  duties  in  Virginia,  made 
another  visitation  to  Xorth  Carolina. 
On  this  occasion  he  presided  at  the 
Convention  of  this  young  and  prom- 
ising diocese. 

"  Li    Edenton    [lie    remarks],    at    whicli 
place  the  Convention  convened,  our  sittings 


94:  LIFE    OF   BISHOP    Ex\.YEXSCKOFT. 


were  attended  by  great  numbers  of  people, 
some  of  wliom  had  come  from  a  distance  of 
fifty  miles,  to  witness  our  proceedings  and 
attend  upon  our  ministry.  In  that  place  I 
ordained  two  Deacons,  and  admitted  one 
gentleman  to  the  Priesthood.  In  that  dio- 
cese, so  late  as  the  year  1817,  there  was  not 
a  single  clergyman  ;  they  are  now  blessed 
with  the  labors  of  seven  faithful  men,  and 
in  the  course  of  another  year  several  candi- 
dates wlio  are  now  prej^aring  for  holy  orders, 
will  be  admitted  to  the  ministry  of  the 
Word."' 

The  venerable  Bishop  of  Yirginia  con- 
tinued his  patriarchal  su23ervision  of  the 
Church  in  Xorth  Carolina  until  the  year 
1823,  when  the  Convention,  which  assembled 
at  Salisbury,  elected  the  Eev.  John  S.  Ra- 
venscrofr,  by  a  unanimous  vote,  to  the  office 
of  Bishop.  J^ever  was  a  person  taken  more 
completely  by  surprise.  Mr.  Ravenscroft 
was  a  stranger  to  almost  every  individual  in 


QUALIFICATIONS   FOR  THIS   POSITION.         95 

the  Convention ;  but  his  good  name  had 
gone  abroad,  and  in  calling  upon  him  to 
accept  this  most  important  office,  the  Church- 
men of  North  Carolina  were  well  assured 
that  their  confidence  was  reposed  on  one 
who  would  never  disappoint  their  hopes. 

A  zealous  and  devoted  servant  of  Christ — 
a  man  disinterested  to  a  iault,  and  possess- 
ing rare  qualifications  for  usefulness  as  a 
preacher  and  pastor— it  was  believed  that 
the  uncompromising  firmness  with  which 
he  held  fast  to  the  Gospel  in  the  Church, 
would  keep  the  children  of  Zion  steadfast 
in  the  faith,  and  draw  back  many  into  the 
right  way,  who  had  thus  far  been  wandering 
abroad. 

Mr.  Ravenscroft  could  not  but  think  that 
a  call  so  unexpected  and  unsought  for  must, 
indeed,  be  considered  as  a  voice  from  God, 
and  he  did  not  dare  to  decline  the  position 
of  labor  and  trial  which  thus  presented  it- 
self before  him.     Relying,  therefore,  on  the 


96  LWE  OP  BISHOP   KArENSCEOF'T. 


help  of  God,  lie  signified  liis  readiness  to 
accept  the  appointment,  and  he  was  accord- 
ingly consecrated  Bishop  of  Xorth  Carolina, 
during  the  session  of  the  General  Conven- 
tion at  Philadelphia,  on  Thursday,  May  22d, 
1823. 

The  service  was  held  in  St.  Paul's  Church, 
the  venerable  Bishop  White  presiding,  and 
Bishops  Griswold,  Kemp,  Croes,  Bowen,  and 
Brownell  being  present  and  assisting. 

As  the  Church  in  North  Carolina  was  still 
in  its  infancy,  it  was  necessary  for  the 
Bishop  to  assume  the  charge  of  a  j)arish,  in 
addition  to  his  Episcopal  duties,  in  order  to 
secure  a  support.  Immediately  after  his  con- 
secration, Bishop  Pavenscroft  hastened  to 
Paleigh,  and  began  his  labors  as  Pector  of 
the  church  there,  and  within  a  month  from 
the  adjournment  of  the  General  Convention 
he  had  entered  upon  his  first  visitation  to 
the  several  parishes  of  his  diocese.  One  of 
his   first   eflforts   was  to  impress    upon    his 


clergy  and  people  a  proper  estimation  of 
Baptism  and  Conlinnation ;  and  in  order  to 
this,  lie  preached  often  and  earnestly  on  these 
important  snbjects,  and  tanght  from  lionse  to 
honse,  as  he  journeyed  through  the  State* 
At  the  opening  of  the  primary  Convention 
of  the  Diocese,  the  Bishop  delivered  an  able 
sermon,  setting  forth  in  plain  terms  his  views 
in  regard  to  the  Church,  and  the  most  effect- 
ual means  of  promoting  its  growth  and 
prosperity,  and  communicating  the  details 
of  the  course  which  he  should  feel  bound  to 
pursue. 

N"o  one  -svho  ever  listened  to  the  glowing 
tvords  of  Bishop  Eavenscroft,  while  standing 
in  the  pulpit  and  addressing  his  fellow-men, 
as  the  ambassador  whom  God  had  appointed, 
could  doubt  for  a  moment  his  thorough  sin- 
cerity, and  his  anxious  desire  to  do  the  will 
of  Him  that  sent  him. 

"I  remember  well  his  intense  energy  in 
preaching,"  remarks  Bishop  Whittingham,  in 
9 


98  LIFE   OF  BISHOP   RAVENSCROFT. 


a  letter  to  the  writer  of  this  memoir,  "  and 
how,  on  one  occasion,  in  Philadelphia,  his 
entire  possession  of  his  w^ork  was  shown  in 
the  fact  that,  the  fastening  of  his  cravat 
having  given  way  in  preaching,  he  went  on 
uninterruptedly,  and  with  undiminished  earn- 
estness  of  delivery,  while  with  one  hand  he 
deliberately  relieved  his  neck  of  the  entangle- 
ment of  the  offending  garment,  and  laid  it 
down  behind  him.  This  I  saw,  and  well 
remember  how  it  rather  increased  than  in 
any  way  detracted  from  the  effect  of  his 
energetic  eloquence." 

The  training  which  the  Bishop  had  gone 
through  with  in  former  days,  and  his  ac- 
quaintance with  human  nature,  enabled  him 
to  do  a  work  for  the  Church  in  JSTorth  Caro- 
lina, which  some  cloistered  student,  rich  in 
stores  of  Greek  and  Hebrew,  would  have 
been  nnable  to  accomplish.  As  an  illustra- 
tion of  what  we  mean,  a  well-anthenticated 
anecdote    is   introduced.     The  Bishop   was 


DISCUSSION   ABOUT   RACE-HORSES.  99 


once  riding  in  a  stage-coach,  tlirough  his  ex- 
tensive diocese,  with  a  company  of  Southern 
planters,  all  strangers  to  himself,  when  the 
conversation  turned  upon  the  subject  of 
race-horses  !  As  the  discussion  waxed  warm, 
and  the  passengers  took  different  sides,  an 
old  gentleman,  wdio  was  one  of  the  cham- 
pions, appealed  to  the  Bishop  to  sustain  the 
opinions  he  had  expressed,  not  at  all  suspect- 
ing that  he  was  addressing  a  dignitary  of  the 
Church. 

Bishop  Ravenscroft  happened,  at  an  ear- 
lier period  of  his  life,  to  have  been  thor- 
oughly versed  in  matters  of  the  sort ;  and, 
when  thus  unexpectedly  called  upon,  ho 
came  to  the  assistance  of  the  perplexed  con- 
troversialist with  a  hearty  good-will. 

As  usual  with  him,  he  carried  the  day. 
Some  time  after,  the  old  gentleman  discov- 
ered who  his  valuable  ally  was ;  and,  in 
speaking  of  him  to  a  friend,  in  the  highest 
terras  of  admiration,  he  added,  as  a  climax 


100  LIFE   OF   BISHOP   EAVENSCKOFT. 


to  liis  praises,  "  Why^  he  hiows  all  about  race- 
horses /" 

Learning,  about  this  time,  that  the  Bishop 
was  endeavoring  to  build  a  church  in  some 
desolate  place,  he  sent  him  a  generous  con- 
tribution towards  the  object. 


€]mtn  ®i\jclftt 


SEVERE  LABOE — THE  PENALTY  OF  OVER-EXERTION — OCCU- 
PATION OF  A  SICK  CHAMBER — CONTROVERSY DIVI- 
SIONS   AMONG    CHRISTIANS    DEPLORED TWO  MODES    OF 

DOING    CHURCH   TTORK: BOTH    GOOD    IN   THEIR    WAY 

THE    COURSE    WHICH    NECESSITY   URGED    UPON    BISHOP 

RAVENSCROFT LETTER     TO    BISHOP     IIOBART — FAINT, 

YET  PURSUING — HUMBLENESS  OF  A  GREAT  MIND. 

ISHOP  EAYEXSCEOFT  had 
'''  thrown  his  whole  soul  into  the  work 
::^Q)  from  the  first  day  of  his  ordination 
'-^J'lS  ^^  ^li®  ministry ;  but  now  that  he 
was  not  only  the  Rector  of  a  parish, 
but  the  chief  shepherd  of  a  whole 
diocese,  every  energy  of  body  and  mind  was 
taxed  to  the  utmost,  in  the  discharge  of  the 
duties  of  his  high  calling. 
9* 


102  LIFE   OF   BISHOP    JRAVENSCKOFT. 


The  farthest  western  congregation  was 
more  than  three  hundred  miles  distant  from 
the  most  eastern  one ;  and  jet,  even  after 
disease  had  laid  its  firm  grasp  npon  him, 
constantly  reminding  him  of  the  uncertainty 
of  life,  he  punctually  made  his  annual  visits 
to  both. 

A  younger  man  might,  perhaps,  have 
undergone  the  fatigue  and  exposure  of  these 
long  journeys  with  less  difficulty,  but  cer- 
tainly no  hero  ever  faced  difficulties  and 
dangers  with  a  bolder  front  than  did  the 
venerable  Bishop  of  ]^orth  Carolina. 

Hardships  and  anxieties  of  mind,  however, 
soon  left  their  mark  upon  his  once  vigorous 
constitution,  and  during  the  whole  of  the 
second  winter  after  his  removal  to  the  dio- 
cese he  was  confined  to  the  house  by  illness. 
But  even  the  sicl^  chamber  was  no  place  of 
idleness  and  repose. 

Just  before  his  first  illness  he  had  been 
invited  to  preach  before  the  Bible  Society  at 


CONTROVERSY.  103 


its  annual  meeting,  in  December,  at  the  city 
of  Ealeigli,  althougli  he  had  openly  ex- 
pressed his  disapprobation  of  one  feature  in 
the  constitution  of  the  Society.  Availing 
himself  of  the  occasion,  he  explained  his  ob- 
jections, and  gave  in  general  his  views  of 
the  proper  principle  upon  which  Bible  so- 
cieties should  be  founded  to  be  most  efficient 
in  their  operations. 

This  sermon  having  been  published,  elicit- 
ed veiy  severe  animadversions  from  various 
quartei-s,  and  eventually  attracted  the  notice 
of  a  celebrated  professor  of  theology  in  Vir- 
ginia. That  gentleman,  in  his  strictures 
upon  the  sermon,  and  the  publications  aris- 
ing out  of  it,  having  assailed  the  Church  of 
which  Bishop  Ravenscroft  was  a  member 
and  a  minister,  the  Bishop  felt  himself  im- 
periously called  upon  to  st^nd  forth  to  vindi- 
cate it  from  his  aspersions. 

Though  worn  by  severe  and  protracted  ill- 
ness, the  result  of  his  labors  was  a  masterly 


104  LUE   OF    BISHOP   EAYEJ^SCEOFT, 


and  triumphant  vindication  of  the  doctrines 
of  the  Church."^     ■ 

However  mucli  all  good  people  must  de- 
plore the  divisions  which  mar  the  face  of 
the  Christian  w^orld,  it  is  certainly  the  bonn- 
den  duty  of  those  w^hom  God  has  called  to 
watch  over  the  affairs  of  His  Church,  to  be 
ready,  on  all  suitable  occasions,  to  give  a 
reason  for  the  hope  that  is  in  them. 

To  Bishop  Ravenscroft  was  committed  the 
arduous  undertaking  of  setting  in  order  the 
affairs  of  a  new  diocese,  w^hich  had  its  begin- 
ning in  the  midst  of  those  who  were  bitterly 
opposed  to  the  Church,  and  a  man  with  a 
spirit  less  bold  and  determined  might  have 
been  cowed  into  silence,  or  induced  to  con- 
ceal the  more  unpopular  features  of  religion. 
But  he  had  not  so  learned  his  duty.  Cost 
what  it  might,  he  was  ready  to  live  and  die 
by  principles  w^hich  he  believed  to  be  found- 
ed in  truth. 

«  Bishop  Ravenscroft's  Works,  Vol.  I.,  42,  43. 


•BOTH    GOOD   IN   THEIR   WAY.  105 

There  will  always  be  a  difference  of  opinion 
among  good  men  as  to  the  best  mode  of  ex- 
tending the  Church.  Some  seek  to  win 
their  way  (j^uietlr  and  almost  imperceptiblj, 
attaching  the  people  to  them  by  their  taith- 
fulncss  in  preaching  the  Gospel  and  by  their 
diligence  as  pastors,  leaving  the  peculiarities 
of  the  Chure'.i  to  come  afterwards;  while 
they  who  are  no  less  zealous  in  the  discharge 
of  these  duties,  will  feel  it  incumbent  on 
them  not  only  to  bring  forward  the  truths  of 
religion,  which  are  held  in  common  by  all 
true  believers,  but  also  to  follow  the  example 
of  St.  Paul,  and  "  Speak  concerning  Christ 
and  the  ChurchP 

There  can  be  no  question  that  both  of 
these  modes  of  oi>eration  have  their  peculiar 
advantages,  and  while  one  may  succeed  best 
under  certain  circumstances,  the  other  would 
be  found  most  effectual  among  a  different 
class  of  people,  with  inquiring  minds,  and 
witb  the  means  of  investigation  within  their 


106  LIFE    OF    BISHOP    RATENSOROFT. 


reach.  Bishop  Griswold  and  Bishop  Moore 
may  be  mentioned  as  examples  of  those  who 
acted  uj^on  the  first  of  the  principles,  and 
Bishop  Hobai-t  and  Bi&hop  Ravenscroft  of 
those  who  pursued  the  latter  course. 

Were  not  all  of  these  men  devotedly  at- 
tached to  tlie  same  branch  of  Christ's  holy 
Church?  Did  they  not  all  labor  with  the 
same  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  and  devotion  to 
advance  its  interests  ?  No  one  can  deny  it. 
Does  not  this  show  us  that  God  works  by  dif- 
ferent instrumentalities^  and  in  various  waySy 
for  tlie  accomplishment  of  the  same  great 
end  ?  And  ought  not  such  considerations  to 
pour  oil  upon  the  troubled  waters,,  and  keep 
the  whole  Church  in  peace  ? 

In  the  last  paragraph  I  have  coupled  to- 
gether the  names  of  Hob  art  and  Ravens- 
croft.  This  seems  a  favorable  opening  for 
introducing  a  letter  from  the  Bishoj)  of  North 
Carolina  to  his  Right  Reverend  brother  of 
Kew  York,  upon  his  return  to  America,  aftei 


LETTER   TO   BISHOP    IfOBART.  107 


a   visit    to   Europe    for   the    benefit   of   liis 
health: 

Raleigh,  March  18,  182G. 

Right  Rev.  and  dear  Sir — It  was  my 
anxiety  not  to  appear  indifferent  to  the 
happy  event  of  your  restoration  to  health,  to 
your  family,  and  to  the  Church,  through  the 
miscarriage  of  a  letter  (which  is  a  very  com- 
mon thing),  that  prompted  me  to  write  the 
second  time.  I  well  knew  that  you  could 
have  time  for  nothing  but  to  meet  and 
answer  the  congratulations  of  your  numerous 
friends. 

I  thank  you  very  gratefully  for  the  favor- 
able opinion  you  are  pleased  to  entertain 
and  express  of  my  principles  and  conduct. 

The  situation  of  this  southern  country, 
surrendered  for  the  last  forty  or  fifty  years  to 
the  exclusive  influence  of  the  dissenters,  left 
me  no  alternative  but  to  increase  that  influ- 
ence by  adopting  half-way  measures,  or,  by 
a  decided   course,  to   call  into  action  what 


108  LIFE   OF  BISHOP  EAVEKSOECRBI^ 


was  left  of  predilection  for  the  Cliureliy  to> 
rally  lier  real  friends  around  her  standard^ 
and  to  strike  fear  into  her  enemies  hj  the 
unqualified  assertion  of  her  distinctive  char- 
acter y  and  I  have  cause  of  thankfulness  be^ 
yond  expression^  that  it  has  pleased  God  to 
give  success  so  far  to  the  little  I  have  been 
enabled  to  do.  Multitudes  have  owned  to 
Hie,  that  but  for  the  imperious  call  upon 
their  most  serious  consideration,  occasioned 
by  the  announcement  of  the  doctrines  of 
the  Church,  they  might  have  gone  dream- 
ing through  life,  without  once  realizing 
their  practical  use  to  the  assurance  of 
faith. 

Our  progress  is  comj)aratively  slow  in 
organizing  new  congregations.  We  want 
missionaries,  and  have  funds  to  employ  twOy 
but  cannot  obtain  them ;  yet  my  hope  is 
strong— it  is  not  my  cause  but  the  Lord's^ 
and  His  providence  is  so  distinct  in  His  over- 
ruling direction  of  events  for  the  furtherance 


LETTER   TO   BISHOP    IIOBART. 


109 


of  that  cause,  that  both  my  clergy  and  my- 
self arc  _o*reatly  encouraged. 

The  habits  and  occupations  of  my  best 
years  were  not  favorable  to  the  retaining, 
far  less  to  the  improvement,  of  a  good  educa- 
tion. Every  hour  I  have  cause  to  regret 
that  improvidence  which  abandoned  the 
continuation  of  mental  improvement,  and  in 
a  good  degree  threw  away  the  fruits  of 
care,  and  pains,  and  expense  in  my  early 
education. 

But  I  foresaw  not  the  use  the  Lord  had 
for  me.  Wonderful  it  is  that  He  should 
have  sought  me  out,  and  what  is  left  of  me  I 
wish  to  be  all  His.  Eemember  me  in  your 
prayers,  help  me  with  your  counsel,  reprove 
me  where  I  am  in  error  or  wrong,  and  be- 
lieve me,  very  truly  and  affectionately,  your 
friend  and  brother  in  the  Lord, 

Jonx  S.  Eavexscroft.* 


«  Beriian's  Life  of  Bishop  Hobart,  Vol.  I.,  p.  oG-i. 
10 


110  LIFE   OF   BISHOP   RAVENSCEOFT. 


Eeautiful  example  of  humility  in  a  great 
and  noble  mind !  Bishop  Hobart  was  sev- 
eral years  younger  than  the  Bishop  of  JSTorth 
Carolina,  yet  the  elder  calls  upon  him  for  his 
counsels,  his  reproofs,  and  his  prayers. 


BRETHREN     DWELLING     TOGETRER     IN     UNITY BISHOP 

MOORE's    letter A    VIRGINIA    CONTENTION LOVE 

FOR  THE    CHURCH MEN    OF    PRAYER WRESTLINGS   OF 

A  DEVOUT  SPIRIT — ENTERING  INTO  THE  CLOSET — DE- 
LIGHT IN  THE  STUDY  OF  GOd's  WORD — "  WHAT  COM- 
MENTATOR SHALL  I  CONSULT?" — TEACHINGS  OF  THE 
SPIRIT. 


HE  letter  given  in  the  last  chapter 
shows  for  itself  the  friendly  relations 
which  existed  between  Bishoj)  Ea- 
venscroft  and  Bishop  Hobart.  As 
they  sympathized  so  perfectly  in 
their  views  of  the  Church,  such  an 
appearance  of  brotherly  kindness  will  occa- 
sion no  surprise.  In  order  to  sustain  the 
position  laid  down  before,  that  Churchmen  of 
every  grade,  being  left  free  to  promote  the 


112  LIFE    OF   BISHOP    RAYEXSCEOFT. 


welfare  of  God's  kingdom  in  the  way  wliicli 
seems  to  each  the  best  calculated  to  secure 
this  end,  may  live  on  the  closest  terms  of 
intimacy  with  one  another,  I  shall  introduce 
a  letter  from  the  venerable  Bishop  of  Yir- 
ginia,  written  less  than  two  years  before 
Bishop  Ravenscroft's  decease. 

EiCHMOXD,  Ya.,  3Iarch  19^A,  1828. 

Right  Rev.  and  deae  Sir — The  last  meet- 
ing of  our  Convention  in  Fredericksburg  was 
one  of  the  most  interesting  that  I  have  ever 
witnessed.  It  was  thought  that  there  were 
at  least  twelve  hundred  visitors  in  that  place 
on  that  occasion,  and  those  visitors  people  of 
the  first  distinction  in  our  country. 

I  look  forward  to  our  contemplated  meet- 
ing in  Petersburg  with  hope ;  and  should  it 
please  God  to  bless  us  with  such  a  sense  of 
His  presence  as  was  enjoyed  in  Fredericks- 
burg, it  will  meet  the  most  sincere  expression 
of  gratitude.     It  would  afford  me  the  great- 


BISHOP  moore's  letter.  113 


est  satisfaction,  could  you  make  it  convenient 
to  visit  Tetersburg  at  that  time ;  and  I  have 
no  doubt  all  your  old  friends  would  be 
pleased  to  see  you  also.  You  once  delighted 
to  be  with  us,  and  it  is  my  belief  you  would 
be  delighted  again ;  for  if  I  know  you,  and  I 
think  I  do,  you  are  not  adverse  to  the  most 
ardent  expression  of  devotion.  I  am  now  an 
old  man,  and  cannot  be  far  distant  from  that 
country  to  which  we  are  all  hastening ;  and 
as  I  believe  we  shall  experience  no  coldness 
in  heaven,  I  do  not  see  why  the  Church  be- 
low should  not  taste  a  little  of  that  joy  of 
which  we  hope  to  partake  in  another  and  a 
better  world.  You  must  perceive  that  I  am 
now  addressing  you  as  I  formerly  did,  when 
you  resided  in  Virginia;  and  should  the 
.friendly  expression  I  use  touch  that  chord  of 
affection  which  used  to  beat  in  perfect  unison, 
with  my  own  feelings,  you  will  not  be- 
offended  with  me.  I  love  order— I  love  the 
Liturgy  of  the  Church  with  all  the  powers. 
10* 


114  LIFE   OF   BISHOP   EAYENSCEOFT. 


of  my  heart,  but  am  of  opinion  that  our 
services,  instead  of  producing  formality,  are 
calculated  to  make  us  feel,  and  rejoice,  and 
give  thanks. 

Your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 

RiCHAKD  Chaining  Mooke.* 

Little  did  the  venerable  writer  of  this  let- 
ter (then  in  his  sixty-sixth  year)  suppose  that 
he  should  be  living  and  laboring  on  the 
earth  for  more  than  eleven  years  after  his 
brother  Bishop,  who  was  ten  years  younger 
than  himself,  had  gone  to  that  better  country 
of  which  he  so  touchingly  speaks  !  Yet  so  it 
was  ordered  by  Him  who  doeth  all  things  well. 

However  Bishop  Moore  and  Bishop  Ra- 
venscroft  might  differ  in  oj)inion  as  to  the 
best  mode  of  extending  the  Church  among 
those  who  were  ignorant  of  her  high  and 
holy  claims,  it  could  not  be  said  that  the  one 

-  Henshaw's  Life  of  Bishop  Moore,  p.  23-4. 


MEN    OF    TKAYER.  115 


went  beyond  the  other  in  sincere  attachment 
for  her,  since  both  spent  their  lives  in  her 
service,  and  both  died  while  eno-aired  in  the 
field  of  duty. 

It  is  apparent,  from  tlie  most  cursory  read- 
ing of  the  letter  jnst  qnoted,  that  the  Bishop 
of  Virginia  was  a  man  of  prayer.  The  same 
was  true  of  the  Bishop  of  Xorth  Carolina. 
"  I  cannot  conclude  these  brief  notices  of  my 
beloved  diocesan,"  writes  one  who  knew  him 
most  intimately  for  years,  "without  advert- 
ing to  what  I  conceive  was  one  of  liis  most 
distinguishing  and  lovely  characteristics — I 
mean  Ms  devotion  in  private.  On  more 
than  one  occasion  I  have  been  unavoidably 
placed  as  an  ear-witness  of  his  moments  of 
retired  devotion — a  devotion  to  which  I  am 
sure  that  he  thought  there  were  no  witnesses 
but  himself  and  his  God.  And  it  was  at  such 
times  that  I  wished  a  censorious  world  could 
have  stood  in  my  place.  I  distinctly  remem- 
ber the  first   time  that  I  was  so   situated. 


116  LIFE    OF    BISHOP    EAVEXSCKOFT. 


Such  were  the  strong  wrestlmgs  and  deep 
groanings  of  that  man  of  God  in  prayer,  that 
my  first  impulse  was  to  fly  to  his  assistance, 
fearing  lest  some  sudden  and  violent  pain 
had  seized  upon  him  ;  but  a  moment's  reflec- 
tion convinced  me  that  it  was  not  hodily 
anguish  that  wrung  these  complainings  from 
him,  hut  an  agony  of  spirit,  which  seemed 
driven  for  relief  to  these  plaintive  moanings. 
Oh,  how  hard  would  he  seem  to  wrestle  with 
his  God!  Every  groan  that  burst  from  his 
laboring  soul  seemed  to  say,  I  will  not  let 
Thee  go^  excejyt  Thou  hless  me.  Nor  was  his 
a  short-lived  or  transitory  devotion.  Three 
times  a  day,  like  the  prophet  of  old,  did  he 
kneel  upon  his  knees,  and,  unless  pressed  by 
other  duties,  he  continued  in  prayer  for  the 
sj)ace  of  half  an  hour.  His  usual  custom 
was  to  go  from  the  reading  of  God's  Word  to 
the  seeking  of  His  face  in  prayer.  Indeed,  I 
have  never  known  a  more  diligent  reader  of 
the  Bible.     It  was  ever  open  on  his  desk, 


DELIGHT  IX  THE  STUDY  OF  GOd's  ^VOKD.  117 


and  in  the  composition  of  liis  sermons  lie  sel- 
d(^ni  sought  assistance  "beyond  its  pages. 
Enter  his  study  when  you  would,  there  was 
his  Bible  on  one  side  of  him,  and  his  Con- 
cordance on  the  other.  As  a  practical  ex- 
2)0under  of  Scripture  I  have  never  known 
his  equal.  He  left  to  others  the  applause  of 
critical  acumen  and  deep  research,  and 
sought  rather  to  bring  every  passage  of 
God's  Word  to  bear  npon  the  conscience  of 
the  sinner.  And  in  these  practical  applica- 
tions of  Scripture  he  was  peculiarly  solemn 
and  interesting.  "When  in  health,  I  have 
known  liim,  after  preaching  twice  or  thrice 
in  the  day,  lecture  at  family  prayers  for 
thirty  or  forty  minutes,  upon,  perhaps,  the 
first  chapter  that  met  his  eye  on  opening 
the  Bible.  And  on  these  occasions  it  has 
often  been  thought  by  his  friends  that,  in 
j^oint  of  force  of  manner  and  richness  of 
thought,  he  even  exceeded  his  more  delib- 
erate pulpit  exercises." 


118 


LIFE   OF   BISHOP   KAYENSCKOFT. 


The  study  of  the  Scriptures  was  Bishop 
Eavenscroft's  delight,  and  he  would  have  all 
go  to  this  fountain-head  to  drink  in  refresh- 
ment for  their  souls.  When  asked  by  the 
young  and  inexperienced,  "  What  comment- 
ator shall  I  consult  in  reading  my  Bible  ?" 


it  on  your  knees,  and  the  Spirit  of  truth  will 
make  all  necessary  things  plain  unto  you." 


Chapter    f  awrtecntlr. 

A    SUXDAY    AMONG    THE     MORATIAX    BRETHREX — EARLt 
SERVICE    AT    THE    SCHOOL — WORSHIP   IN  THE   CIIURCH 

INTRODUCTION    TO     BISHOP    BENADE LOYE-FEAST 

FRIENDLY     INTERVIEW LONGINGS     AFTER     UNITY— 

THE    lord's    supper — MODE    OF    ITS    ADMINISTRATION 
— NIGHT    SERVICE — PARTING   WITH    MUTUAL    EXPRES* 

8I0NS    OF    REGARD A    PETITION    IN   "WHICH   ALL   TRUE 

CHRISTIANS  MUST  HEARTILY  UNITE. 

T  would  be  comparatively  easy  to  turn 
over  Bishop  Kavenscroft's  reports  to 
the  Convention  of  ^orth  Carolina, 
and  inform  our  readers,  in  detail,  as 
to  the  time  of  his  visitations  to  the 
several  parishes,  and  the  number  of 
persons  confirmed  in  each  ;  but  we  jDrefer,  in 
the  small  space  allotted  for  this  memoir,  to 
bring  forward  such  facts  only  as  will  be  of 
interest  to  all.     With  this  view,  a  somewhat 


120  LIFE   OP  BISHOP  EAVENSCEOFT* 


extended  extract  will  here  be  given,  from  the 
journal  of  one  of  his  visitations  to  the  west- 
ern j^art  of  the  diocese ; 

"  August  12,  1S27. —Sundai/.—l  attended 
the  services  of  the  Moravian  Brethren  in  this 
place  [Salem],  which  commenced  in  the 
chapel  of  the  female  school  at  half-past  eight 
in  the  morning,  and  was  performed  in  En- 
glish, by  singing  accompanied  with  the 
organ,  extempore  prayer  standing,  and  a 
short  discourse  from  Revelation  iii.  11.  The 
school  is  very  numerousj  and  great  order  and 
uniformity  are  maintained.  At  ten  o'clock 
the  services  commenced  in  the  church,  by 
singing,  accompanied  with  the  organ  and 
other  instruments.  The  line  is  given  out  by 
the  minister,  and  all  sing  sitting.  After  the 
singing)  their  Bishop,  by  name  Benade, 
preached  sitting,  and  with  great  fluency  and 
force,  though  in  the  German  language,  and, 
therefore,  not  understood  by  me  and  the 
other  visitors. 


LOVE-FEAST.  121 


"  After  the  discourse,  prayer  was  made,  at 
which  the  congregation  stood,  after  which 
they  sung  and  were  dismissed.  After  the 
services  I  was  asked  into  the  vestry-room, 
and  introduced  to  the  Bishop  and  one  of  his 
presbyters,  but  had  no  opportunity  for  con- 
versation beyond  that  of  civility.  It  being  a 
festival-day,  commemorative  of  some  remark- 
able event  in  their  history,  the  Bishop's  time 
was  very  limited* 

"  At  one  o'clock  their  love-feast  was  held, 
to  which  I  was  invited  and  attended.  At 
this  there  were  no  other  services  than  the 
singing  of  a  jubilee  psalm  in  parts,  by  the 
choir  and  congregation,  accompanied  with 
the  instrumental  music,  during  which  there 
was  handed  to  every  individual  present  a 
round  cake  or  kind  of  light  bun,  and  a  half- 
pint  mug  of  coftee,  "which  was  partaken  of 
by  all  during  the  singing,  as  each  was  dis- 
posed. 

"The  parts  performed  by  the  choir  were 
11 


122  LIFE  OF  BISHOP   EATENSCEOFT. 


executed  standing,  in  opposite  galleries :  the 
congregation  sang  sitting.  At  the  close,  all 
stood  to  sing  the  hallelujah. 

"  After  the  love-feast,  I  had  another  inter- 
view with  Bishop  Benade  in  the  vestry-room, 
wdien  he  informed  me  the  Communion  would 
be  administered  after  an  interval  of  about 
two  hours— say  half-past  three  o'clock — at 
which  I  could  attend,  either  as  a  spectator  or 
a  communicant.  To  this  I  rej)lied,  that 
though  curiosity  was  in  part  the  cause  of  my 
visit  to  Salem,  yet  it  was  not  the  sole  cause, 
it  being  my  real  desire,  as  we  were  the  only 
two  Episcopal  churches  in  America  which 
could  and  would  acknowledge  each  other 
[for  the  Komanists  presented  an  insuperable 
bar],  to  know  more  of  them,  and  let  them 
know  more  of  us.  If,  therefore,  I  was  pre- 
sent, it  would  be  as  a  communicant,  and  I 
must  accordingly  request  information  as  to 
the  mode  of  administering.  This  was  im- 
mediately explained  to  me,  and  there  being 


THE  lord's  supper.  123 


nothing,  in  my  judgment,  iinscriptural  or 
inconsistent  with  the  essentials  of  a  sacra- 
ment, I  conchuled  to  commune  with  them. 
At  tlie  appointed  hour  tlie  Church  [mean- 
ing thereby  the  communicants]  assembled, 
amounting  to  upwards  of  two  hundred  per- 
sons, and  at  a  signal  given  by  the  bell,  the 
vestry-room  door  was  opened,  the  organ 
began  a  solenm  voluntary,  and  the  Bishop, 
with  the  Priests  and  Deacon,  walked  up  to 
the  altar,  carrying  the  bread  in  two  baskets, 
covered  with  a  white  linen  cloth,  themselves 
habited  in  white  surplices,  bound  round  the 
loins  with  a  broad  girdle.  Tlie  wine  was 
previously  placed  upon  the  altar  in  six  de- 
canters, with  glass  mugs  to  distribute  it. 
The  altar  was  covered  with  white  drapery, 
ornamented  with  festoons  of  artificial  flowers. 
"On  the  Bishop's  taking  the  chair,  he 
gave  out  the  line  of  a  hymn,  which  was 
sung  by  the  people  to  the  organ.  He  then 
delivered  a  short  exhortation,  and  proceeded 


124  LITE   OF   BISHOP   RAVE2fSCE0FT. 


to  the  consecration  of  the  elements,  which 
was  exactly  similar  to  our  own  mode,  in  the 
recitation  of  Scripture,  and  the  laying  of  his 
hand  on  the  bread,  and  on  the  wine,  pre- 
viously poured  into  the  mugs.  AYhen  the 
consecration  was  finished,  a  Prie>t,  attended 
by  a  Deacon  bearing  the  bread  on  the  right 
Bide  of  the  altar,  and  another  Priest,  attended 
by  a  Deaconess  with  the  bread  on  the  left 
side  thereof,  proceeded  to  administer  to  the 
communicants  in  this  wise.  The  bread  was 
prepared  very  wliite  and  thin,  unleavened, 
and  in  oblong  shapes,  sufficient  for  two  j)or- 
tions.  On  coming  to  me,  to  whom  it  was 
first  presented,  the  Deacon  administered  to 
two  at  a  time,  until  the  whole  Church  had 
received,  each  row  of  seats  rising  up  to 
receive,  and  again  sitting  down  holding  the 
bread  in  their  hands.  When  the  communi- 
cants were  all  served,  the  baskets  were  re- 
turned to  the  altar,  when  the  Bishop  and 
clergy  having  taken  the  bread  likewise,  th^ 


NIGUT   SERVICE.  125 


organ  cea?ed,  and  all  knelt  down  in  silence 
and  ate  the  bread.  A  due  portion  of  time 
was  appropriated  to  private  devotion,  and 
towards  the  close  the  organ  struck  a  most 
solemn  strain,  to  which  the  connnunicants  all 
responded  in  a  verse  of  a  hymn  sung  upon 
their  knees. 

"When  this  was  finished,  all  rose  up  and 
the  cup  was  then  distributed,  each  drinking 
and  handiug  to  his  neighbor — the  Deacon 
attending  to  replenish  and  to  pass  it  from  one 
row  of  seats  to  another.  The  ceremony  was 
concluded  with  a  hymn  of  praise,  and  dis- 
mission of  the  congregation — I  presume  with 
the  apostolic  benediction — and  all  I  have  to 
regret  is,  that  I  was  a  stranger  to  their 
language. 

"  At  half-past  seven  the  services  a^ain 
commenced,  and  were  precisely  similar  to 
those  in  the  forenoon.  One  of  the  Priests 
delivered  the  sermon,  being  the  same  whom 
I  heard  in  the  school  chapel  in  the  morning 
11" 


126  LIFE    OF   BISHOP    KAYEXSCROFT. 


in  English  ;  but  in  a  very  different  style  and 
manner  of  address  and  delivery  in  his  native 
language.  During  this  service  Bishop  Be- 
nade  and  myself  sat  together,  and  at  tlie  close 
we  took  leave  of  each  other,  I  trust,  with 
mutual  Christian  regard,  and  with  the  desire 
of  a  more  close  acquaintance." 

That  Bishop  Ravenscroft  was  sincerely  de- 
sirous to  see  all  branches  of  the  Church  of 
Christ  living  together  in  harmony  and  peace, 
may  be  gathered  from  this  instance  of  his 
going  out  of  his  way  to  meet  with  the  Mora- 
vian Brethren.*  May  God  hasten  the  time 
when  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  work!  shall 
become  the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ ! 

"  "^  The  origin  of  the  Moravian  Brethren  is  rather  doubt- 
ful and  obscure.  Some  account  of  this  Society  will  be 
found  in  Hook's  Church  Dictionary. 


(Lbajtcr   liftccntlr. 

tnE  BISHOP  LEAVES    THE  PARISH  AT    EALEIGH KEMOVAL 

TO  AVILLIAMSBOROUGH LAST   EARTHLY  TIE   BROKEN — 

THE    CONVENTION  OF  1829    RELEASES    HIM  FROM  PARO- 
CHIAL   CHARGE VISIT   TO    TENNESSEE  AND    KENTUCKY 

LABORS  OF  DR.  CHAPMAN — KENTUCKY  ORGANIZED  A3 

A     DIOCESE — BISHOP    RAVENSCROFT    AT    LEXINGTON 

NINETY-ONE  CONFIRMED INTERESTING  PARTICULARS. 

IIE  parish  at  Ealeigli,  of  wliicli 
Bishop  Eavenscroft  was  Rector,  had 
so  increased  in  size  and  importance, 
that  it  required  more  active  and  nn- 
interruj^ted  labor  than  his  duties  to 
the  diocese  at  Large  and  his  failing 
health  would  allow  him  to  bestow,  and  ac- 
cordingly, early  in  the  year  1828,  he  resigned 
this  pastoral  charge. 

The  congregations  of  jS'ewbern  and  AVil- 
miuicton — both  of  which  were  strong  and  in- 


128  LIFE    OF    BISHOP    EAYENSCEOFT. 

fluential — were  anxious  to  secure  him  for 
tlieir  pastor,  although  his  time  would  be  thus 
limited  by  other  cares ;  but  he  thought  it 
best,  on  the  whole,  to  settle  in  the  village  of 
Williamsborough,  where  the  j)eople  had 
nev^er  eujoyed  the  privilege  of  regular  ser- 
vices, and,  on  this  account,  would  be  less 
likely  to  receive  injury  from  ministrations 
which  must  necessarily  be  of  centimes  inter- 
rupted. 

Soon  after  his  removal  to  his  new  home, 
the  Bisliop  met  with  an  irreparable  loss  in 
the  death  of  his  devoted  wife,  who  was  called 
away  from  earthly  anxieties  and  cares,  in 
January,  1829. 

It  Avas  a  great  source  of  comfort  to  her 
husband,  that  not  a  single  cloud  obscured 
the  brightness  of  her  heavenly  prospect,  and 
as  he  himself  expressed  it,  in  his  strong  and 
vigorous  style,  "  there  was  not  even  a  dis- 
torted feature  in  the  agonies  of  death,  to  be- 
tray any  quailing  before  the  king  of  terrors." 


RELEASE   FROM   PAROCHIAL   CHARGE.      120 


The  last  earthly  bond  which  bound  the 
good  Bishop  to  this  world  was  now  severed 
forever.  His  own  frail  health  rendered  the 
loss  of  this  gentle  and  sympathizing  com- 
panion the  more  grievous,  but  it  brought  him 
nearer  to  the  Saviour. 

The  Convention  of  1829,  sensible  of  the 
increasing  iniirmities  of  their  chief  pastor, 
resolved  to  release  him  entirely  from  the 
care  of  a  parish.  It  is  greatly  to  be  regretted 
that  this  relief  did  not  come  sooner,  for  the 
visitation  immediately  preceding  this  session 
of  the  Convention  was  the  last  he  was  ever 
to  make  to  the  diocese,  which  owed  so  much 
to  his  faithful  labors. 

Immediately  after  the  adjournment  of  this 
body,  the  Bishop  set  out  to  fulfil  a  promise 
which  he  had  made  to  visit  the  few  churches 
of  our  communion  scattered  through  Ten- 
nessee. While  at  Xashville,  he  received  an 
urgent  letter  from  the  Rev.  George  T.  Chap- 
man, the  Rector  of  Christ  Church,  Lexing- 


130  LIFE    OF    BISHOP    RAVENSCKOFT. 


ton,  Kentucky,  begging  the  favor  of  him  to 
extend  his  journey  to  that  place. 

Hitherto,  the  Episcopalians  of  Kentucky 
had  never  enjoyed  the  benefits  of  a  visitation 
from  a  Bishop,  and  the  state  of  slumber  and 
inaction  into  which  they  had  sunk  seemed 
only  the  precursors  of  death. 

Dr.  Cliapman,  the  distinguished  author  of 
"Sermons  on  the  Church" — through  whose 
agency  the  scattered  sons  of  the  Church  were 
brought  together — thus  sj)eaks  of  his  efforts 
in  this  noble  cause  :  "  In  the  spring  of  1829, 
knowing  that  the  General  Convention  was  to 
meet  that  year  in  Philadelphia,  in  concert 
with  some  prominent  members  of  my  Church, 
I  took  measures  to  secure  the  organization 
of  the  State  of  Kentucky,  as  a  diocese  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church.  Having  heard 
that  a  few  Episcopalians  were  living  at  Dan- 
ville, I  set  off  for  that  place  on  the  ^  30th  of 
May,  and  having  in  a  few  days  collected 
these  persons  together,  my  object  in  visiting 


LABORS   OF   DR.    CHAPMAN.  131 


them  was  fully  explained,  and  the  result  was 
a  speedy  organization  of  a  church,  and  the 
appointment  of  delegates  to  attend  the  then 
proposed  State  Convention  at  Lexington,  in 
July.  From  Danville  I  proceeded  to  Louis- 
ville,  at  that  time  destitute  of  a  Eector, 
preached  in  the  church  in  that  city,  June  7— 
stated  m.y  object  to  its  members,  in  which 
they  cordially  concurred,  and  also  appointed 
the  desired  delegates.  Eeturning  to  Lexing- 
ton the  same  week,  preparations  Were  made 
for  the  meetino;  of  the  Convention.-     It  as- 


^  As  the  Journal  of  this  primary  Convention  is  now  a 
rare  document,  the  writer  gives  a  few  items  from  the 
copy  in  his  possession.  There  were  three  clergymen  pres- 
ent—viz.,  tlie  Rev.  George  T.  Chapman,  D.D.,  Rector 
of  Christ  Church,  Lexington ;  the  Rev.  Benj.  0.  Peers, 
Deacon,  Principal  of  the  Pestaloz2;i  Academy,  and  the 
Rev.  Jolm  Ward,  Principal  of  a  Female  Academy— all 
of  the  same  city.  The  lay  delegates  represented  three 
parishes,  and  their  names  were  as  follows.  From  Otrist 
Church,  Louisville,  Messrs.  Richard  P>arnes,  John  Bustard, 
and  John  P.  Smith.  From  Trinity  Church,  Danville,  Messrs. 
Daniel  Barl)ee,  Henry  I.  Cowan,  Ephraim  M-Dowell, 
M.D.  ;    Edward    Worthington,    and    Frederick    Yeiser 


132  LIFE   OF  BISHOP   EAVlll^gCfiOFl'* 


seinbled  in  Christ  Church,  on  AYednesdayj 
July  8,  1829.  Divine  service  was  celebrated 
and  a  sermon  preached  by  me,  being  the 
only  settled  clergyman  in  the  State.  The 
organization  of  the  Diocese  was  then  happily 
effected,  tliere  being  several  lay  delegates 
from  the  three  parishes  of  Lexington^  Louis- 
ville, and  Danville,  and  three  of  the  clerical 
order  from  Lexington,  when  the  Convention, 
after  discharging  its  remaining  duties,  ad- 
journed.''* 

Soon  after  this  important  step  had  been 
taken.  Dr.  Chapman  learned  from  the  papers 
that  Bishop  Ravenscroft  was  then  on  a  visit 
to  Kashville,  and  addressed  him  a  letter,  as 
has  been  already  mentioned. 

He    cheerfully    acceded    to    the    request 

From  Christ  Church,  Lexington,  Messrs^  Richard  Asliton, 
John  E.  Cookj  M.D.  ;  Anthony  Dumesnil,  Josiah  Dun- 
ham, John  W.  Hunt,  Charlton  Hunt,  William  Morton, 
and  Thomas  Smith. 

«  Spirit  of  Missions,  Vol.  XIII.,  No.  4.     April,  1848, 
p.  97,  98. 


ivhich  had  been  made,  that  he  would  come 
on  to  Kentucky,  before  returning  home,  and 
stated  the  pi'obable  time  when  he  might  be 
expected  at  Lexington.  Tlie  prospect  of  a 
visit  from  this  venerable  servant  of  the  Cross 
at  once  excited  great  interest  among  the 
people.  Those  whose  traditional  love  for  the 
Church  had  been  l)rought  from  Virginia,  at 
an  early  day,  but  whose  allegiance  might 
long  since  have  given  way,  biit  for  the  old 
dust-covered  Prayer  Books  which  were  pre- 
served as  heirdooms  in  their  families,  now 
felt  their  old  attachment  revive. 

The  class  of  Churchmen  whose  minds  had 
been  impressed  by  the  powerful  writings  of 
Chapman  and  Cooke,*  and  who  regarded 
the  Church  as  God^s  kingdom  in  the  world, 
took  courage  when  it  was  noised  abroad  that 
a  Bishop  would  soon  be  with  them,  to  ad- 
minister   those    ordinances    of    the   Gospel, 

c-  See  sketch  of  Dr.  Cooke's  Life  in  Church  Review. 
July,  185G,  VoL  IX.,  p.  226. 

12 


134:  LIFE   OP  BISHOP   KAVENSCROFT* 


which  had  never  jet  been  brought  to   the 
far-off  West. 

The  highest  expectations  which  liad  been 
raised  by  reports  of  Bishop  Kavenscroft's 
heart-stirring  eloquence  were  more  than  real- 
ized, when  he  made  his  appearance  at  Lex- 
ington. His  matchless  energj^  and  his 
glowing  piety,  sustained  and  rendered  even 
more  commanding  by  his  manly  proportions, 
roused  to  enthusiasm  the  hopes  of  the  chil- 
dren of  Zion, 

Dr.  Chapman  thus  speaks  of  this  visit  in 
a  letter  written  expressly  for  this  work ; 
"The  Bishop  arrived  at  my  house  in  Lex- 
ington, at  eight  o'clock,  Saturday  evening, 
July  25,  1829,  and  was  therefore  seen  for  the 
first  time  by  the  congregation,  on  the  next 
morning,  in  Christ  Church,  when  seventy- 
one  persons  w^ere  confirmed,  and  on  Tuesday, 
the  28th,  twenty  more.  The  Bishop  Avent 
the  following  day,  and  made  no  other  ac- 
quaintance  in   Kentuckj^   but    the  passing 


IXTERESTTNG    PARTICULARS.  135 


throiigli  it,  ill  the  stage,  from  Xashville  to 
Maysville.  At  Lexington  lie  was  most  cor- 
dially received,  and  preached  throe  admir- 
able discourses,  which  were  listened  to  by 
crowded  audiences  with  profound  attention. 
On  Monday  and  Tuesday  my  house  was 
thronged  with  those  desirous  of  testifying 
their  admiration  of  this  truly  excellent  and 
evangelical  Bishop.  On  these  occasions,  I 
took  good  care,  by  leading  questions,  to  have 
him  discourse  on  the  great  doctrines  of  the 
Cross,  and  this  he  did  fully  and  freely  to 
large  numbers  of  delighted  hearers.  These 
interviews  were  altogether  of  a  spiritual 
cast.  The  Bishop  was  the  only  S23eaker,  and 
as  it  was  with  Paul  at  Athens,  so  it  was  with 
him.  '  His  spirit  was  stirred  within  him,'  to 
declare  the  whole  counsel  of  God  with  such 
fervor,  that  all  found  it  good  for  their  souls  to 
be  there.  The  language  I  do  not  profess  to  re- 
member, but  the  effect  was  electric  and  search- 
ing— '  a  solemn  stillness  reigned  ai*ound.-  " 


A.    LOXG   JOUENEY STATE     OF    HEALTH GEXEEAL    CON- 

VENTIO]ff MEDICAL    ADVICE PROSPECT    OF  EECOVEET 

EETUEX  HOME EELAPSE LAST  SEE  VICE XO    MOEE 

HOPE  OF  LIFE DEATH-BED  COXYEESATIOXS DE,  FEEE- 

MAN's   XAERATIYE — FOLLY    OF   EEPEXTAXCE    DELAYED 

UNTIL  THE  CLOSE  OF  LIFE COMMUXIOX  OF  THE  SICK 

THE  SLEEP  OF  DEATH. 

/^^^^HE  Episcopal  visitation  to  Tennessee 
^fMP\\  and  Kentucky,  spoken  of  in  the  last 
clia2)ter,  cost  Bishop  Ravenscroft  a 
long  and  fatiguing  journej — more 
than  a  thousand  miles  of  which  he 
performed  in  stages  and  steamboats, 
and  a  good  part  of  that  distance  being  over 
a  rouo:h  and  mountainous  res^ion. 

His  friends  entertained  hopes  that  the  trip 
might  benefit  his  health,  and  he  probably 
had  some  slight  anticipations  of  the  sort  him- 


KKLAPSE.  137 


self;  but  tliey  were  by  no  means  realized. 
lie  attended  the  General  Convention  in 
Philadelphia,  and  then  continued  a  month  in 
the  city,  after  the  close  of  the  session,  in 
order  to  enjoy  the  benefit  of  medical  advice. 
The  skill  of  the  eminent  physicians  who  pre- 
scribed for  him  was  so  far  successful  that  he 
returned  to  Xorth  Carolina  with  sanguine 
expectations  that,  by  proper  care,  his  healtli 
might  be  thoroughly  re-established. 

Thus  fiir,  the  Bishop  had  always  been 
reckless  in  the  exposure  of  himself  to  the  in- 
clemencies of  weather,  and  while  his  con- 
stitution remained  vigorous  he,  seemed  to 
sufter  little  inconvenience.  His  physicians 
had  so  strongly  impressed  upon  him  the 
al)solute  necessity  of  greater  prudence,  that 
he  went  home  with  a  determination  to  follow 
their  advice.  He  was,  however^  exposed 
to  severe  cold,  from  a  sudden  change  of 
weather,  while  going  to  Fayetteville,  where 
he  intended  to  make  his  future  home,  and  all 
12* 


138  LIFE   OF   BISHOP   EAVENSCEOFT. 


the  worst  symptoms  of  bis  disease  again  re- 
turned, in  a  still  more  alarming  shape.  The 
Bishop  disposed  of  his  efiects  in  Williams- 
borough,  pre]3aratoiy  to  his  removal,  and 
had  reached  Haleigh  in  December,  where  he 
designed  to  remain  during  the  session  of  the 
Legislature. 

His  health  was  now  so  miserable  that  his 
friends  were  filled  with  the  most  serious 
alarm.  He  continued,  however,  to  struggle 
manfully  against  his  disease,  and  prepared  a 
sermon  for  the  consecration  of  Christ  Church, 
Raleigh,  and  performed  that  service. 

The  chronic  diarrhcea,  to  which  he  had  so 
long  been  subject,  was  rapidly  wearing  away 
his  strength,  and  other  forms  of  disease 
began  to  develope  themselves. 

Writing  to  a  friend  on  the  last  of  January, 
1830,  he  says :  "  I  am  weakening  daily,  and 
now  can  just  sit  up  long  enough  at  a  time  to 
scribble  a  letter  occasionally."  And  then  he 
adds :  "  As  respects  the  result,  I  am,  thank 


NO   MORE    HOPE   OF   LIFE.  139 

God,  free  from  apprehension.  I  am  ready. 
I  Inimbly  trust,  through  the  grace  of  my 
Divine  Saviour,  to  meet  tlie  will  of  God, 
whether  that  shall  be  for  life  or  for  death  ; 
and  I  humbly  thank  Curist  Jesus,  my  Lord, 
who  sustains  me  in  patience  and  cheerfulness 
tlirough  the  valley  and  shadow  of  death." 

The  Bishop's  mind  was  fully  made  up  that 
this  sickness  would  prove  his  last ;  but  he 
enjoyed  the  reasonable,  religious,  and  holy 
hope  of  a  Christian.  Even  to  the  closing 
hour  of  life,  he  continued  to  bear  testimony 
to  the  great  truths  of  the  Gospel,  which  he 
had  so  faithfully  preached. 

The  Kev.  George  W.  Freeman,  then  Rec- 
tor of  Christ  Church,  Raleigh,  and  now 
Bishop  of  Arkansas,*  has  furnished  some  in- 
teresting particulars  of  Bishop  Ravenscroft's 
last  days.  The  original  manuscript  contain- 
ing them  has  been  kindly  lent  to  the  writer, 

o  News  of  the  decei\se  of  this  esteemed  prelate  is  still 
recent,  whUe  these  pa^es  are  passing  through  the  press. 


14:0  LIFE    OF   BISHOP    KAVENSCP^FT, 


for   the   better  accomplishment   of  his   pur- 
pose. 

''  On  one  occasion^"  says  Dr.  Freeman^ 
"several  persons  being  present,  I  turned  to 
the  book  of  Proverbs,  and  read  to  those  who 
were  sitting  by  me  tlie  following  passage 
[Chap.  XX.  21] — A/i  inheritance  Qnay  he  got- 
ten hastily  at  the  heginning^  hut  the  end 
thereof  shall  not  he  Messed — ^and  proceeded 
to  observe  how  little  encouragement  was 
aiforded  by  this  passage  for  a  man  to  make 
haste  to  be  rieh,  etc.  AVhen  I  ceased  speak- 
ing, the  Bishop,  who  I  thought  was  not  at- 
tending to  what  passed,  exclaimed :  '  There 
is  another  lesson  to  be  learned  from  it.  It 
may  be  applied  to  tliose  who  have  hastily 
obtained  a  religious  inheritance — who  place 
their  dependence  on  those  sudden  and  eva- 
nescent fervors  which  they  have  experienced 
in  some  moment  of  excitement.' 

*'  With  respect  to  his  own  prospects  he  ap- 
peai-ed  to   entertain    no    apprehensions.     I 


DEATH-BED   CONVERSATIONS.  14:1 


Asked  him,  a  few  days  before  his  decease,  if 
he  had  never,  during  his  ilhiess,  been  trou- 
bled with  doubts  and  misgivings  2 

"  '  !N'ever,'  said  he.  '  So  free  have  I  been 
from  any  suggestions  of  the  enemy,  that  I 
have  never  doubted  for  a  moment,  except 
that  the  thought  has  sometimes  come  over 
me  that  my  tranquillity  is  possibly  an  evi- 
dence that  Satan  thinks  himself  sure  of  me, 
and  theretbre  lets  me  alone.' 

"  On  my  answering,  that  as  he  had  been 
laboring  to  pull  down  Satan's  kingdom — had 
been  constantly  engaged  in  fighting,  not  in 
liis  ranks,  but  in  opposition  to  him,  it  was 
not  reasonable  to  suppose  that  he  had  any 
claims  upon  him. 

"  ^  True,'  said  he ;  '  but  then  I  have  had 
such  a  body  of  fiin  to  struggle  against,  and 
seem  now  to  have  been  so  much  engaged  in 
preaching  myself,  rather  than  God,  that  I 
feel  humbled  in  the  dust.  My  only  ground 
of  consolation  is,  that  as  Cueist  suffered  in 


142  LIFE    OF  BISHOP   KATENSCROFT. 


weakness  for  our  redemption,  mucli  more 
may  we  hope  to  be  saved  by  the  power  of 
His  resurrection.' 

"  Speaking  of  his  enfeebled  state,  and  what 
he  called  the  wandering  of  his  thoughts,  he 
remarked  on  the  folly  of  delaying  repentance 
to  a  sick  bed,  and  expressed,  as  he  had  often 
done  before,  his  desire  to  warn  every  one  of 
the  hopelessness  of  being  able  to  settle  on  a 
dying  bed  so  vas-t  a  concern  as  that  of  mak- 
ing one's  peace  with  God.  '^If  I  had  my 
work  now  all  to  do,  what  would  become  of 
me?  If  I  had  put  off  this  matter  to  this 
time,  it  must  have  been  entirely  neglected.' 

"  He  received  the  Holy  Communion  once 
while  on  his  sick  bed,  and  had  appointed  to 
receive  it  again  a  few  days  before  his  death. 
But  when  the  time  came^  he  was  so  much 
exhausted  by  the  preparations  which  he  had 
made,  and  which  he  would  not  omit,  in  order 
that  he  might  come,  as  he  expressed  hin> 
self,  'literally  clean  to  the  heavenly  feast/ 


COMMUNION   OF  THE   SICK.  143 


'that  lie  was  obliged  to  forego  the  oppor- 
tunity. 

'' '  I  am  not  in  a  condition,'  said  he,  ^  to 
partake  discerningly,  and  I  have  no  supersti- 
tious notions  respecting  the  Eucharist.  I  do 
not  regard  it  as  a  viaticum^  necessary  to  the 
safety  of  the  departing  soul.  I  believe  that, 
in  my  case,  the  will  will  be  accepted  for  the 
deed  ;  and  tell  my  brethren  [who  were  assem- 
bled in  the  next  room  to  partake  with  him] 
that  though  I  am  denied  the  privilege  of 
shouting  the  praises  of  redeeming  love  once 
more  with  them  around  the  table  of  our  com- 
mon Lord,  yet  I  will  commune  with  them  in 
spirit.' 

"  The  evening  before  his  death,  I  had  left 
him  for  a  few  mom-en ts.  Soon  after,  receiv- 
ing intelligence  that  he  was  dying,  I  hastened 
to  him,  and  found  him  nearly  speechless,  and 
sinking,  to  all  appearance,  very  fast.  I  asked 
him  if  I  should  pray.  '  I  cannot  follow  you,' 
was  his  reply,  uttered  with  great  difficulty. 


14:4:  LIFE   OP   BISHOP   EAfEJ^SCEOFTV 


I  then  kneeled  down  by  him,  and  praje(J 
silently.  After  some  moments  he  seemed  to 
revive,  and  motioned  to  n&  to  retire  from  hi& 
bed-side  and  leave  him  undisturbed,  I  sat 
and  watched  him  from  that  time  till  he  ex- 
pired, which  he  did  about  one  o^clock  the 
following  morning  [March  5th,  1830],  with- 
out having  spoken  for  five  or  six  hours.  He 
appeared,  however,  to  be  in  the  entire  pos- 
session of  his  mind  to  the  last,  and  expired 
without  a  struggle," 


€\mttx  ^ntwittw 


BrKIAL — MIXTJTE  DIRECTIONS  IN  HIS  WILL — LIBRAKY  FOE 
THE  DIOCESE WORKS  FOR  TUE  PRESS — PERSONAL  AP- 
PEARANCE—  MANNERS — SOLEMNITY  IN  CHURCH — RE- 
PORTS   OF   EYE-WITNESSES ORDINARY    COURTESIES    OF 

LIFE — AN  OFT-TOLD  STORY  SPOILED — LOVE  TOWARDS 
GOD — SUCCESS  IN  THE  MINISTRY; — THE  BEST  KNOWL- 
EDGE— AFFECTION  FOE  HIS  CLERGY — THE  WISE  OLD 
MAN  AT  REST. 

HE  remains  of  Bishop  Eavenscroft 

were  deposited  in  a  vanlt  beneath 

the  chancel  of  Christ  Church,  Ea- 

leigh,  and  the   following   directions 

concerning  his   burial,   as  found  in 

his  will,  were  scrupulously  observed. 

"  My  will  and  desire  is  that  the  coffin  to 

contain  my  mortal  remains  be  of  plain  pine 

wood,  stained  black,  and  without  ornament 

13 


146  LIFE    OF   BISHOP    RAVENSCROFT. 


of  any  kind ;  that  my  body  be  carried  to  the 
grave  by  my  old  horse  Pleasant,  led  by  my 
old  servant  Johnson  ;  that  the  service  for  the 
burial  of  the  dead,  as  set  forth  in  the  Book 
of  Common  Prayer,  and  none  other,  be  used 
at  my  interment,  with  the  5th,  Yth,  9th,  10th, 
and  11th  verses  of  the  16th  Psalm,*  to  be 
used  instead  of  the  hymn  commonly  sung; 
and  that  the  Kev.  George  W.  Freeman,  Rec- 
tor of  Christ  Church,  Paleigh,  do  perform 
the  said  services." 

The  Bishop  bequeathed  his  valuable  library 
to  the  diocese,  to  be  preserved  for  the  use  of 
the  clergy  and  laity  of  the  Protestant  Episco- 
pal Church  in  E'orth  Carolina. 

He  also  left  to  the  "  Episcopal  Bible, 
Prayer  Book,  Tract,  and  Missionary  Society" 
of  the  diocese,  in  which  he  had  always  felt  a 
deep  interest,  the  copyright  of  such  of  his 
writings  as  his  friends  might  think  it  advis- 

«  Psalm  13th  in  our  present  Selections. 


ERSONAL   APFEAKANCE.  147 

able  to  publish.  Two  large  and  liandsoine 
volumes  were  afterwards  issued,  in  accord- 
ance with  this  permission. 

In  person  Bishop  Eavenscroft  was  large 
and  commanding,  and  his  manner,  especially 
when  engaged  in  any  of  the  public  offices  of 
the  ministry,  was  remarkably  dignified,  and 
80  solemn  and  impressive  as  to  inspire  all 
who  witnessed  it  with  reverence.  It  was  im- 
possible not  to  partake  of  the  consciousness 
which  he  ever  seemed  to  feel  when  standing 
up  at  the  altar  of  God. 

The  writer  has  often  heard  a  friend  speak 
of  the  deep  impression  made  upon  his  mind, 
when  he  heard  the  Bishop  recite  the  Ten 
Commandments  in  the  Communion  Ser\ace. 
Another  relates  that  on  a  certain  Confirmation 
occasion,  a  very  large  number  of  persons  be- 
ing present,  when  he  gave  out  the  beautiful 
hymn,  "  Come,  Holy  Spirit,  heavenly  Dove," 
and  began  to  read  it,  every  one  rose  up,  as 
if  struck  with  some  overpowering  influence. 


lis  LIFE   OF   BISHOP   EAYENSCEOFT. 


In  liis  general  intercourse  with  society,  the 
Bishop  was  polite  and  courteous,  although, 
when  excited  in  debate,  his  loud  tone  of 
voice  and  warmth  of  manner  conveyed  the 
im^Dression  of  a  dictatorial  spirit,  with  which 
he  could  not  justly  be  accused. 

His  deej)  self-abasement  on  account  of  sin 
promj)ted  him  to  speak  of  himself  in  terms 
60  strong  and  forcible,  as  sometimes  to  mis- 
lead strangers,  and  do  injury  to  himself. 

The  truth  is,  that  he  felt  so  grateful  to 
God,  for  having  called  him  to  a  knowledge 
of  the  truth,  and  permitted  him  to  preach  it 
to  others,  that  he  could  think  of  no  terms  too 
glowing  in  which  to  magnify  the  Divine 
goodness  towards  him. 

A  story  was  very  generally  circulated 
through  various  parts  of  the  country,  during 
the  Bishop's  life,  and  is  believed  by  many  to 
tliis  day,  which  contains  not  a  word  of  truth. 
It  runs  thus :  Before  Mr.  Ravenscroft  aban- 
doned the  service  of  the  world,  and  devoted 


AN    OFT-TOLD    STORY    SPOILED.  149 


liiiiiself  to  God,  he  liad  severely  chastised  a 
servant  one  day  for  disobedience,  and  had 
ordered  him  to  his  cabin.  He  then  secretly 
follows,  and  stops  in  a  secluded  position  near 
by,  in  order  to  ascertain,  if  possible,  the  feel- 
ings which  the  oflender  would  manifest. 

To  the  master's  unutterable  surprise,  he 
found  him  engaged  in  fervent  prayer  to  God 
for  himself,  the  passionate  being  whose  lash 
had  been  so  mercilessly  applied ;  and  he  was 
so  overcome  by  this  pathetic  appeal  in  his 
behalf,  that  he  abandoned  his  former  course 
of  life,  and  became  a  sincere  and  devoted 
servant  of  the  Lord. 

It  is  almost  a  pity  to  spoil  so  good  a  story, 
but  faithfulness  as  a  biographer  obliges  me 
to  do  so.  While  Bishop  Raven scr oft  was  in 
Kentucky,  Dr.  Chapman,  of  Lexington,  in- 
quired as  to  the  truth  of  this  narrative.  He 
replied,  that  "  when  rumors  of  that  descrip- 
tion are  current,  if  not  altogether  correct, 
there  is  usually  to  be  found  some  incident, 
13* 


160  LIFE    OF    BISHOP    liAVENSCKOFT. 


actually  occurring,  to  wliich  tlieir  circulation 
miglit  be  traced.  But,  in  tliis  instance  [he 
added],  there  was  not  the  slightest  founda- 
tion for  the  story.  There  was  no  such  vic- 
tim, no  such  prayer,  and  no  such  cause  of 
conversion." 

The  most  prominent  feature  in  the  Bishop's 
Christian  character  was  love  towards  God, 
growing  out  of  a  profound  sense  of  the 
mercy  which  had  been  extended  to  him,  a 
poor  erring  sinner. 

As  a  minister  of  the  gosvel  of  Christy  he 
was  most  diligent  an:l  zealous,  and  he  lived 
to  see  many  fruits  of  his  labors. 

Without  having  any  great  claims  as  a 
scholar^  he  was  thoroughly  conversant  with 
the  Holy  Scrij)tures;  and,  certainly,  a  man 
of  whom  this  could  be  truly  said,  he  was, 
indeed,  a  workman  who  needed  not  to  be 
ashamed. 

As  a  Bishop^  he  was  untiring  in  his  de- 
votion to  the  duties  of  his  office,  and  E"orth 


TIIK    WISK    OLD    MAN    AT    IlEST.  151 


Carolina  can  never  forget  the  debt  of  obli- 
gation Avlilcli  she  owes  to  him. 

In  his  intercoui-se  with  his  clergy,  the 
Bishop  was  kind  and  affectionate.  He  re- 
garded them  as  his  sons^  and  they  looked  up 
to  him  as  a  loved  and  honov^di  father.  Kone 
but  offenders  against  the  laws  of  God  and 
His  Church  had  cause  to  fear  him.  In  his 
presence  all  distinctions  vanished,  except 
that  which  his  dignified  person,  his  com- 
manding talents,  and  his  undoubted  piety 
might  justly  claim  for  him. 

And  now,  while  taking  our  last  look  at 
this  great  and  good  man,  laid  low  by  death, 
it  is  with  the  feelings  of  one  who  gazes  with 
admiration  uj^on  the  matchless  proportions 
of  some  mighty  triumph  of  the  sculptor's 
skill,  thrown  down  from  its  j^edestal  by  the 
rude  hand  of  time,  yet  grand  and  beautiful 
in  ruins. 

* '  The  good  old  mau  Li  gone  ! 
An  Apostle's  chair  is  void  ; 


162  LIFE   OF   BISHOP   EAVENSCROFT. 


There  is  dust  on  his  mitre  thro"vvn, 
And  they've  broken  his  pastoral  rod  ; 

And  the  fold  of  his  love  he  has  left  alone, 
To  account  for  its  care  to  God. 

"  The  wise  old  man  is  gone  ! 

His  honored  head  lies  low, 
And  his  thoughts  of  power  are  done, 

And  his  voice's  manly  flow, 
And  the  pen  that,  for  truth,  like  a  sword  was  drawn, 

Is  still  and  soulless  now. 

' '  The  brave  old  man  is  gone  ! 
With  his  armor  on,  he  fell ; 
Nor  a  groan  nor  a  sigh  was  drawn, 

When  his  spirit  fled,  to  tell ; 
For  mortal  sufferings,  keen  and  long, 
Had  no  power  his  heart  to  quell." 


LIFE  OF  GEORGE  HERBERT, 

BY 

GEORGE  L.  DUYCKINCK. 


George  Herbert  is  of  all  England's  sacred  poets  the 
most  sure  of  an  enduring  fame.  He  was  a  true  poeU 
His  life,  too,  was  a  very  lovely  one — that  of  a  true  Chris- 
tian, of  a  scholar,  a  gentleman,  and  a  faithful  parish 
priest.  More  than  this,  he  was  beloved  of  dear  old  Izaak 
Walton,  who  wrote  his  life  with  that  sweet  homeliness  of 
style  which  wins  all  honest  hearts  to  him.  Mr.  Duyckinck 
has  undertaken,  in  this  pretty  little  volume,  to  set  forth 
Herbert's  life  again  "  ■\\'ith  a  simplicity  of  style  and  ful- 
ness of  detail  which  should  in  some  degree  meet  the  re* 
quirements  both  of  youthful  and  mature  readers."  Ho 
has  been  very  successful  in  a  not  very  easy  task.  He  has 
come  to  the  work  imbued  with  a  love  of  his  subject,  and 
thoroughly  understanding  it ;  and  he  writes  with  an  un- 
affected earnestness  and  purity  quite  in  keeping  with 
it.  The  young  reader  will  find  much  valuable  and  inter- 
esting information  in  the  book,  upon  matters  kindred  to 
or  connected  ^Nith  its  main  purpose  ;  and  it  is  calculated 
to  foster  a  correct  literary  taste,  no  less  than  to  beget  a 
healthy  moral  tone. — Courier  and  Eivjuircr. 
30 


THE  LIVES  OF  THE  BISHOPS. 

BY  THE  EEV.  J.  N.  KORTON. 

PUBLISHED    BY    THE    CHURCH    BOOK    SOCIETY. 


TEN  BEAUTIFUL  VOLUMES  ISmo.,  each  illustrated  with  a  Finr 
Steel  Engraving.  Bound  in  Half  Morocco,  Embossed,  and  sold 
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Or  separately^  asfolloiDS  :— 

THE  LIFE  OF  BISHOP  WHITE,    half  emb.  25  c.    Fancy  mus.  30  a 

THE  LIFE  OF  BISHOP  GRISWOLD,   " 

THE  LIFE  OF  BISHOP  CHASE, 

THE  LIFE  OF  BISHOP  SEABUET,     " 

THE  LIFE  OF  BISHOP  HOBART,        " 

THE  LIFE  OF  BISHOP  MOORE,  of  Va. 

THE  LIFE  OF  BISHOP  DEHON, 

THE  LIFE  OF  BISHOP  GADSDEN",     " 

THE  LIFE  OF  BISHOP  HEBER, 

THE  LIFE  OF  BISHOP  RAVENSOROFT,     25  c. 

IN  phess, 

THE  LIFE  OF  BISHOP  WAINWRIGHT.  By  Rev.  J.  N.  Noetoh 

THE  LIFE  OF  BISHOP  CLAGGETT.  "           "           do. 

THE  LIFE  OF  BISHOP  CROES.  ♦'           "           do. 

THE  LIFE  OF  BISHOP  HENSHAW.  «          "          da 

31 


23  c. 

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25  c. 

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« 

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THE  "A.L.O.E."  LIBRARY, 

PUBLISHED    BY    TDE    CllUIiCn    BOOK    SOCIETY.  * 


TEN  BEAUTIFUL  VOLUMES  ISmo.,  bound  in  Fancy  Muslin,  with 

Fine  Engravings,  and  sold  together  for $3  00 

Or  separately,  aa  follows : 

TVING3  AND  STINGS 25  cenU 

THE  GIANT-KILLER 30    do. 

THE  EOBY  FAMILY.    Sequel  to  the  Giant-Killer 30    do. 

THE  YOUNG  PILGRIM 50    da 

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THE  CLAREMONT  TALES So    do. 

THE  STORY  OF  A  NEEDLE 25   da 

FLORA;  or,  SELF-DECEPTION 35    da 

THE  TWO  PATHS,  &c 25    da 

TRUE  HEROISM 25   da 


